Epochs of Modern History 

EDITED BY 
EDWARD E. MORRIS, M.A., J. SURTEES PHILLPOTTS, B.C.L. 

AND 

C. COLBECK, M.A. 



THE AGE OF ANNE. 



EDWARD E. MORRIS. M.A. 



10 15 


20 


d 

r>K>?-oi 


1\ u\ 





WESTERN 

EUROPE 

1700 




Epochs of Modern History 



THE 



AGE OF ANNE 



*\ BY 

EDWARD E. MORRIS, MA. 

OF LINCOLN COLLEGE, OXFORD 

HEAD MASTER OF THE MELBOURNE GRAMMAR SCHOOL, AUSTRALIA 



WITH MAPS AND PLANS 



NEW YOEK: 
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS, 

1887. 






^ 22 ifti 

THE LIBRARY] 
OF CONGRESS i 



WASHINGTON!' 



PREFACE. 



It would not be fair to this little book to send it 
forth to take its chance in the world without a pre- 
face, however much I should prefer that course. My 
aim in writing the book has been so definite, my ob- 
ject so distinct, that I particularly wish it not to be 
tried by an unsuitable standard, nor condemned upon 
wrong grounds. 

In the field of history, as with other kinds of 
knowledge, there are two orders of workers. On the 
one side are the original writers, who make re- 
searches, and delve for new ore ; on the other, those 
who perform the humbler But equally needful office 
of teaching, of spreading 'Knowledge, and working 
into shape the material which the former produce. 
This book is Dot a contribution to the general fund 
of historical knowledge. Those who before knew 
the history of its period will find here no new light." 
It is offered as an effort to assist in the teaching of 
history in schools. It is written in the light of a 
theory, according to the soundness of which and the 
measure with which it has been followed my book 
must stand or fall. 

Much as I should like to study history as it ought 
to be studied, to ransack Record offices and public 
libraries for new information, and with its help to 
place in new aspect facts known before, I can claim 
no credit for such work. I have had neither the 
time nor the opportunity. The demands upon 
a school-master's hours leave him little leisure, and 



vi Preface. 

the undue pressure of examination, with which now- 
adays each school-time closes, destroys the working 
power of at least a portion of his holidays. But a 
schoolmaster may fairly be expected to know the 
kind of book that will be good for the purpose of 
teaching. This is the reason for my venture ; but I 
clearly recognise its limits. 

The theory on which the book is based is the car- 
dinal theory of the whole series called Epochs of 
History. I was led some years ago to believe that, 
in spite of the flood of school histories pouring from 
the press, there was room for a series, in which short 
periods could be studied with that fulness without 
which history is comparatively unprofitable. I had 
the good fortune to find publishers in the first to 
whom I applied, and to secure the cordial co-opera- 
tion of several distinguished writers. As long as I 
remained in England I edited the series. 

It would be ludicrous to claim originality for this 
method. I have always found that schoolmasters 
who are really educators accept the doctrine. But 
I am very anxious to state it clearly, for history les- 
sons have been and are continually ruined by the 
intrusion of cram — names that are mere shadows, , 
and a profusion of dates. 

History is not taught in schools that the excellent 
virtue of accuracy may be learnt. To teach this is 
the function of other lessons that occupy a much 
larger portion of the pupil's time. History should 
be taught for the sake of its human interest. For 
this reason I have made it my first object to avoi<J 



Preface, vii 

being dull. I have been very biographical, taking 
care to introduce formally all new characters of im- 
portance as they come upon the stage. Again, I 
have not feared the accusation of being a " drum and 
trumpet historian," for war, unfortunately, is an in- 
trinsic part of history, and always stirs the interest 
of the young, acting as the bait which may draw 
them on to the study of other matters. 

Disclaiming originality, I wish to indicate the 
sources from which I have drawn. The end of Lord 
Macaulay's history overlaps the period, but, unfor- 
tunately, only the end : all must lament that he was 
not spared to write the history of a time with which 
his acquaintance was so intimate. His essay on Lord 
Mahon's early book is almost as valuable as that book 
itself for the war in Spain. In the same way Lord 
Mahon's History of England from the Peace of 
Utrecht is helpful for the couple of years at the end 
of my period. The volume which the same historian 
wrote as Earl Stanhope, to cover the ground between 
the close of Macaulay's history and the opening of 
his own, I am inclined not to value so highly as his 
larger work ; but I have no wish to depreciate a book 
that has been one of my chief authorities. "A 
History of Great Britain during the Reign of Queen 
Anne," lately published by Mr. F. W. Wyon, is 
more thorough in its research and more interesting. 
His judgment is independent, and his knowledge of 
French memoirs very complete. It is a matter for 
regret that he seems to ignore or to despise the work 
of German historians. I have found Noorden'a 



viii Preface. 

" Spanische Erbfolgekrieg " a very mine in which 
to dig, though I fancy no man could read the book 
through. The period is unfortunately beyond the 
point where the great Ranke writes with fulness, but 
his sketches are of more value than the details of 
others. Gfrorer's " History of the Eighteenth Cen- 
tury " is suggestive. 

I have used Burnet's " History of His Own Time" 
with necessary caution, and the Lives of Marl- 
borough by Coxe and Alison. Considering the pur- 
pose for which the book is intended, I have not hes- 
itated to use my authorities freely, nor cared to avoid 
their language. I confess indeed that I have been 
amused to trace thoughts and expressions from au- 
thority to authority, and doubt not that I also have 
borrowed, perhaps too easily, even the words of others. 

To the list which I have given, and which is by 
no means exhaustive, I must add the following as of 
use in special portions. M. Duruy's " Histoire de 
France" ("Rhetorique,") Mrs. Bray's "Revolt of 
the Cevennes," Dr. Bridges' " France under Riche- 
lieu and Colbert," the introduction of Carlyle's 
" Frederick the Great " and Thackeray's " Esmond " 
and the " Four Georges." It is matter of regret that 
in a novel like " Esmond," which gives so excellent a 
picture of Queen Anne's reign, Thackeray should 
have placed the Old Pretender in London at the 
time of his sister's death — a deviation from history 
not necessary to the development of his plot. 

Edward E. Morris. 
The Grammar School, Melbourne: 
September 4, 1876. 



Chronological STable of Contents. 



CHAPTER I. 

THE SPANISH SUCCESSION. 

PAGE 

Spain still territorially the most powerful kingdom in 
Europe, though she had outgrown her strength 

Her want of vitality shown under the feeble rule of 
the childless Charles II. 

Importance of the question as to his successor 

Three claimants : 

(i) Philip, Duke of Anjou .... 

(2) Joseph, the Electoral Prince 

(3) The Archduke Charles .... 
Aggressive policy of France under Lewis XIV. dan 

gerous to Europe 

The one great opponent of Lewis — William of 

Orange 

The contest stayed by Peace of Ryswick . 

First Partition Treaty 

Death of Joseph, and second Partition Treaty 

Irritation of Spain 

The Darien Scheme 

Unpopularity of William in England . 

The Kingdom of Spain willed to Philip of Anjou 

" II n'y a plus de Pyrenees "..... 9 

Lewis's three mistakes : 

(1) Reservation of Philip's right of succession to 

the French throne 10 

(2) Occupation of Spanish Netherlands ... to 

(3) Recognition of the Old Pretender ... 10 



x Chronological Table of Contents. 

PAGK 

1 70 1. The Grand Alliance of the Hague, result of these 

mistakes 11 

1702 Death of William 11 

His character 12 



1648 
1668 

1678 
1697 

1713 

1681 
1685 
1688 



CHAPTER II. 

LEWIS XIV. 1714. 

(Contemporary with Charles I., Cromwell, Charles 
II., James II., William and Mary, Anne, George I.) 
Five stages in his reign marked by — 

(1) Treaty of Westphalia, which ended the Thirty 
Years' War 

(2) Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, which, forced on 
Lewis by the Triple Alliance, ended the war of 
Succession in Brabant 

ended the in 



(3) Treaty of Nymwegen, which 
vasion of Holland 

(4) Treaty of Ryswick, which ended 
the Grand Alliance 

(5) Treaty of Utrecht. . 
Three impolitic acts of Lewis : 

(1) Seizure of Strassburg 

(2) Revocation of Edict of Nantes 

(3) Ravaging of the Palatinate 



the war against 



18 



24 
139 



CHAPTER III. 

THE NEW DRAMATIS PERSONS. 

Queen Anne 25 

Her Succession 25 

Character 25 

Husband and Children 26 

Lady Marlborough 27 

Duke of Marlborough 27 



Chronological Table of Contents. xi 



Character 27 

Lord Godolphin, Lord High Treasurer . . .31 
Prince Eugene (Eugenio von Savoie) .... 31 
Heinsius, Grand Pensionary of Holland . • «>a 



CHAPTER IV. 

" THE GRAND ALLIANCE." 

The Emperor 33 

The nine Electors 34 

How they ranged themselves : 

(a) On the French side 35 

Bavaria 35 

Cologne 35 

(b) On the side of the Grand Alliance ... 35 
Brandenburg (kingdom of Prussia) ... 35 

Bohemia 35 

Hanover 35 

The Palatinate 35 

(c) Neutral ........ 33 

Mayence 35 

Treves 35 

Saxony 35 

The central powers of the Grand Alliance . . 3*> 

England and Holland 36 

Other allies : 

Minor princes of Germany and Denmark . 36 
Also, after the first year, Savoy and Portugal, who 

deserted France 37 



CHAPTER V. 

OPENING OF THE WAR. 
SECTION I. — Marlborough in Flanders. 

1702 His object 4 2 

To clear the Netherlands of the French ... 4a 



xu 



Chronological Table of Contents. 



PAGB 

1702 Result of the first campaign 43 

French cut off from lower valley of the Rhine. Ven- 

loo and other towns taken . ... 43 

Capture of Bonn on the Rhine and Huy on the 

Meuse 43*44 



and 



SECTION II. — Campaigns in Germany and elsewhere 
(a) On the Upper Rhine .... 

Landau taken by Prince Lewis of Baden 
(<$) In North Italy 

Victory of Cremona won by Prince Eugene 
passes into Tyrol secured 

(c) In Bavaria 

Imperialists routed by the French 

(d) In West Indies 

English under Admiral Benbow worsted 



44 
45 
45 

45 
45 
45 
46 
46 



1704 



Section III.— Spain, 

(a) Failure of attack on Cadiz 46 

(b) Treasure ships taken by the English at Vigo . 47 

(c) Earl of Galway commands the allies against Duke 

of Berwick . 48 

(d) Capture of Gibraltar by Sir George Rooke " 49 



CHAPTER VI. 

RISING IN THE CEVENNES. 

The strength of the Huguenots in the valleys of the 

Loire and the lower Rhone . . . 50 

The Camisards ("Wearers of the white frock,") . 52 

1703 Rise under Jean Cavalier and others ... 52 
1684 The Dragonnades urged on by Madame de Main- 
tenon 54 

1704 Failure of the English fleet to help the Camisards . 56 
The weakness of the Empire in Hungary and Tran- 
sylvania 57 



Chronological Tabic of Contents. xiii 

CHAPTER VII. 

BLENHEIM. 

PAGE 

Object of Lewis to attack Vienna . . . . 58 

Marlborough's plan — to strike across the Rhine, meet 
Eugene, and prevent the junction of the French 

armies in Bavaria 59 

Battle of Blenheim 62 

The results of the victory 67 

The power of Lewis XIV. broken and prestige of 
French arms destroyed 67 



CHAPTER VIII. 



LORD PETERBOROUGH. 

His character 68 

The provinces of Catalonia and Valencia chosen by 

the allies as points of attack 7° 

Capture of Monjuich 72 

Capture of Barcelona 73 

Exploits of Peterborough 75 



CHAPTER IX. 
THE YEAR OF VICTORY— 1706. 

Section I. — Ramillies. 

1706 May 23 The battle -79 

Its results 80 

Fall of Brussels, Antwerp, Menin, Dendermonde 80-81 

Section II. — Turin. 

Siege of Turin 83 

1706 Sept. 7 Battle of Turin 84 

Results of Turin 84 

(1) Disheartening effect on French army . . 84 

(2) The French driven from Piedmont . . .85 

(3) Naples cut off from France . . . .85 



xiv Chronological Table of Contents. 

Section III. — Barcelona and Madrid. 

PAGE 

The French besiege Barcelona 85 

The siege raised by Peterborough . . . .86 
1706 Madrid entered by Earl of Galway . . . .86 
Success of the allies checked by the chivalrous loyalty 
of the Spaniards to Philip 87 



CHAPTER X. 



THE YEAR OF DISASTER — 1707. 
Neutrality of Charles XII. of Sweden secured by 

Marlborough 90 

1707 March The allies defeated by Duke of Berwick at 

Almanza 92 

Archduke Charles reduced to single province of 

Catalonia 93 

Naples secured by the Emperor . . . .93 

Failure of attack on Toulon 94 

Defeat of the allies on Rhine by Villars . . .94 
Sir Cloudesley Shovel lost off the Scilly Islands . 95 



CHAPTER XI. 

LATER FIGHTING IN THE LOW COUNTRIES. 

SECTION I. — Oudenarde and Lille. 

Brabant inclining to French 96 

Siege of Oudenarde 96 

Eugene joins Marlborough 97 

1708 July 11 Battle of Oudenarde . .... 97 

Siege of Lille . 99 

Skirmish at Wynendale 100 

Surrender of Lille 101 

SECTION II. — Negotiations. 

State of France 101 

Lewis proposes terms 102 

The terras of the allies 102 



Chronological Table of Contents. xv 

PAGE 

Embassy of Torcy 102 

Conference at the Hague 102 

1709 Lewis finds proposal intolerable and (May), appeals to 

his people 103 

Their answer 104 

Section \\\.—Malplaquet. 

Villars and Bouffiers , 105 

Plan of campaign — Tournai 106 

Mons 107 

Sept. 11 Battle of Malplaquet 108 



CHAPTER XII. 

LATER CAMPAIGNS IN SPAIN. 

SECTION I.— The three Years that followed Almanza. 

General Stanhope 109 

Port Mahon taken 111 

Duke of Orleans succeeds Berwick . . . .111 

French withdrawn from Spain 112 

Battle of La Gudina 112 

Section II.— The final Campaign. 

Stanhope's advance 113 

His victory at Almenara 113 

His victory at Saragossa 114 

The allies advance and occupy Madrid . . . 115 

They retreat to Toledo 116 

Return to Catalonia 116 

English defeat at Brihuega 117 

Drawn-battle of Villa Viciosa 118 



CHAPTER XIII. 
THE FORTUNES OF PARTIES. 
The development of parties and their influences . 120 
Opposite views of Whigs and Tories on the Revolu- 
tion and religious toleration 121 



XVI 



Chronological Table of Contents. 



inclines to the Tories as the Church 



The queen 

party 

Her first Ministry Tory in the main 

Godolphin and Marlborough gradually go over to 

the Whig camp 

1703-1704 Occasional Conformity Bill brought forward 

three times — its defeat in the Lords . . . 

Lord Somers the most eminent Lord 

Sunderland the most violent of the Whig Junto 

Abigail Hill comes on the scene 

She supplants the Duchess of Marlborough 

1708 Yet the Ministry is made more Whig by the enforced 

resignation of Harley and St. John 

Steady growth of Cabinet government 

Life-command refused to Marlborough 

1710 Dr. Sacheverell's sermon . 

General election — Tory majority 
Dismissal of Whigs .... 
Occasional Conformity Bill passed 



122 
122 

123 

124 
125 
126 
126 
127 

128 
128 
129 
130 
131 
131 
131 



CHAPTER XIV. 

FAG-END OF THE WAR. 

The two Tory chiefs — Harley, Earl of O 

St. John, Viscount Bolingbroke 
Archduke Charles becomes Emperor 
Marlborough's last campaign 

1711 Expedition against Quebec 
Marlborough's disgrace 
Death of Godolphin . 
Twelve Tory peers created 
Ormond commander-in-chief 
English troops separated from the allies 
Eugene still commands the " road to Paris 

1712 July 24. Victory of French at Denain 



xford 



and 



132 
133 

134 
134 
135 
I3S 
136 
136 
136 
137 
137 



Chronological Table of Contents. xvii 

CHAPTER XV. 
PEACE OF UTRECHT. 

PAGE 

Negotiations 138 

1706 (a) After Ramillies 138 

1709 {b) At the Hague 138 

1710 (c) At Gertruydenburg 139 

1711 (d) At Utrecht 139 

3 March. Peace of Utrecht signed .... 139 

1714 The Emperor makes a separate peace at Rastadt . 139 

Results of the Peace of Utrecht .... 139 
To France : 
The Spanish monarchy left in the hands of the 

Bourbons 140 

To England: 

The possession of Gibraltar and Minorca, 
Hudson's Bay Territory, Newfoundland, and 

Nova Scotia 140 

To Spain : 

The loss of possessions in Italy and the Nether- 
lands ........ 141 

To Prussia : 

The acknowledgment of its status as a kingdom 141 
To the Dutch : 
Gain of a barrier in the Austrian Netherlands 

against France 142 

Arguments for the Treaty : 
(a) The war a great burden to England and 

increase of national debt .... 142 
(6) Strength of patriotism in Spain enlisted on 

the side of Philip V 142 

(c) The union of Spain and Austria more dan- 
gerous than that of Spain and France . . 143 
Against the Treaty: 
{a) Necessity for seizing the opportunity of pre- 
venting danger from France for the future 143 
{b) Worthlessness of renunciations . . .143 
(c ) The scanty fruits of such splendid triumphs 143 
B 



xviii Chronological Table of Contents. 



The war a just one, but should have been finished 
after Ramillies J 43 



1707 



CHAPTER XVI. 
THE UNION WITH SCOTLAND. 
SECTION I. — The Union itself. 
1704 The Scotch Act of Security passed in opposition to 

the English Act of Settlement *4S 

1706 Commission appointed to treat, with Lord Somers as 

its president J 4 6 

The Union accomplished x 4 6 

Opposition in Scotland .147 

Principles of representation X 4S 

The Scotch law unchanged x 49 

Adoption of the Union Jack *49 

Good results of the Union I 5° 

Compared with union with Ireland . . . .15° 

SECTION II.— Attempt for the Pretender. 

X707 Jacobite rising I S 1 

Sketch of the old Pretender J 5* 

Failure of the attempt J 53 1 



CHAPTER XVII. 
PETER THE GREAT AND CHARLES XII. 
SECTION I.— The North- Eastern State System. 
View of Russia, Denmark, Sweden, and Poland IS5 

SECTION II.— Peter the Great. 

His early life *! 

His policy *59- 

In pursuance of it he travels in Western Europe . 160 

He visits Holland and England ..... 1 60 

St. Petersburg founded ... . , 161 



Chronological Table of Contents. xix 

PAGE 

The Patriarchate abolished 162 

European fashions introduced 162 

The institution of the Tchin 163 

SEC TION III.— Charles XII. 

1697 Charles succeeds to the throne 164 

His character 165 

He fights Denmark, Poland, and Russia in succession 166 

1700 His victory at Narva 167 

He becomes the arbiter of Europe .... 168 

Section IV. Pultowa. 

1708 Charles marches to meet Mazeppa in the Ukraine . 169 

1709 July 8 Battle of Pultowa 170 

The power of Charles XII. broken .... 171 

He takes refuge with the Turks 172 

171 1 Peter the Great crosses the Pruth, and is defeated by 

the Turks 172 

Section V.— End of Charles XII. and 0/ Peter. 

Charles XII. expelled from Turkey .... 173 

1718 Dec. 11 His death at the siege of Fredericshall . 173 
Peter the Great makes a second journey through 

Europe . . * 174 

1725 Feb. His death 174 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

THE PROTESTANT SUCCESSION. 

Measures to secure the succession of the nearest 

Protestant heir ........ 175 

1597-1690 The Electress Sophia 177 

Her mother Elizabeth, daughter of James I. . . 177 

Her father Frederick, Elector Palatine . . . 178 

Her brother Prince Rupert 179 

Sketch of her life 179 



XX 



Chronological Table of Contents. 



The Jacobites the extreme wing of the Tory party 

The Tory ministers charged with Jacobite leanings 
1714 Quarrels in the Ministry .... 

The last week of Anne's life 

Previous career of Shrewsbury . 

His appointment as Lord High Treasurer 

The Protestant succession secured 
1660-1728 Sketch of George I 

His merits as a king for England 



180 
181 
182 

183 
184 

185 
18S 
186 
187 



CHAPTER XIX. 

END OF LEWIS XIV. 



1715 Sept. 1 Death of Lewis XIV. 

1643-1715 Events in England parallel with his reign 
His later life clouded by trouble 
Death of the Dauphin .... 

Death of the Duke and Duchess of Burgundy 
Lewis XIV.'s reign an evil one for France . 
Policy of the Regent, the Duke of Orleans 



1722 

1716 
1724 



1740 



CHAPTER XX. 

THE FRAGMENTS THAT REMAIN. 

Later career of the Duke of Marlborough . . . 192 

His death 193 

Fate of the Catalans 193 

Victor Amadeus becomes king of Sardinia . . 193 

Philip V. of Spain abdicates, but on the death of his 

son resumes the government 194 

Later events in the Life of the Emperor Charles . 195 

His death 19S 



Chronological Table of Contents. xxi 

CHAPTER XXI. 

ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL. 

SECTION I. — Population, Towns, Architecture. 

PAGB 

Population in time of Anne roughly estimated at be- 
tween five and and seven millions . . . 195-196 
Population and wealth greatest in the south and 

east 196 

Important towns (London, Bristol, Norwich, York, 
Exeter, Shrewsbury, Worcester, Derby, Notting- 
ham, Canterbury) ....... 197 

Steady growth of London 197 

Sketch of London life of the period .... 198 

The City and Westminster 199 

The London Exchange the centre of the commerce 

of the world 199 

Sir C. Wren the architect of St. Paul's . . .201 

His style 202 

Sir John Vanbrugh, the architect .... 203 

Description of Bath 203 

SECTION II.— The Poor. Statistics 

Gradual improvement in the condition of the poor 204 

Pauperism in the reign of Anne .... 206 

Prices and wages 207 

Distribution of land 207 

Corn the staple produce 208 

Wool next in importance 208 

Cotton manufacture in its infancy .... 209 

Other manufactures 209 

High standard of comfort 209 

Consumption of beer diminished by introduction of 

tea and coffee 210 

The " Spectator " on luxuries 211 

Claret driven out by port 212 

Section III.— National Debt. 
General principle of a debt ... .213 

Later history of the debt «5 



xxii Chro?wlogical Table of Contents 



The policy of repudiation attributed to the Pretender 

by the Whigs 215 

SECTION IV. — Strength of Parties. 

The Tories, their strength in the country . . . 217 

The Whigs, their strength in the towns . . . 217 

Oxford, the Tory university — Cambridge the Whig . 218 
The clergy below the present standard . . .218 

Their position improved by Queen Anne's Bounty . 219 



CHAPTER XXII. 



221 
221 
221 
221 
221 



LITERATURE. 

SECTION 1.— French Literature. 
Influence of patronage and rules of art . . 219 

Literature greatest in first half of reign of Lewis XIV. 220 
Strength of the drama 

1622-1673 The comedies of Moliere . 

1606-1684 The tragedies of Corneille . 

1639-1697 The tragedies of Racine . 
Development of French prose 

1627-1704 Absolutism in religion advocated by Bossuet 222 

1623-1662 Revolt of Pascal against this absolutism . . 222 

Reform advocated by the saintly Fenelon . . . 223 

Influence of French on English literature. — Later 

reaction on French literature .... 223-224 

Section II. — English Literature. 
Literature all-powerful and in close alliance with 

politics 22^ 

1688-1744 Alexander Pope 225 

171 1 " Essay on Criticism " 227 

1712 " Rape of the Lock " 227 

1715-1725 "Homer" 227 

1732-1734 " Essay on man" 227 

Pope's style and influence 228 



Chronological Table of Contents. xxiii 

PAGB 

The age of Anne strongest in prose .... 228 

Party spirit gives an impulse to pamphlet-writing . 230 

1667-1745 Jonathan Swift • 230 

1704 "Tale of a Tub" 231 

" Conduct of the Allies " 231 

1724 " Drapier's Letters " 232 

1726 " Gulliver's Travels " 232 

1661-1731 Daniel Defoe 233 

" The True-born Englishman '* 233 

" Shortest way with the Dissenters " .... 234 

1719 " Robinson Crusoe 234 

Joseph Addison 235 

1705 ' ' The Campaign " 236 

Character of Addison 237 

"Cato" 238 

1671-1729 Sir Richard Steele 238 

171 1 Joined by Addison in the "Tatler'* and the "Spec- 
tator" 239 

Influence of the " Spectator 240 

Index 243 



MAPS. 



Europe, 1700 To face title page 

PAGE 

Battle of Blenheim, August 13, 1704 . . .62 

Battle of Ramillies, May 23, 1706 . . . 78 ;. 

Italy, 1700 •. to face 82 

The Netherlands •' 95 

Western Europe: showing the principal 
changes effected by the Treaties of 
Utrecht and Rastadt ...... 140 

Europe: illustrating the Wars of Charles 

XII. and Peter the Great ... .155 



THE AGE OF ANNE. 



CHAPTER I. 

THE SPANISH SUCCESSION. 

In the last years of the seventeenth century the minds 
of all European statesmen were turned towards Spain. 
Spain had once been the most formidable 
of monarchies, dangerous to the peace of Snarchy. sh 
Europe. As far as this formidableness de- 
pended on material resources and extent of territories, 
there was no reason why she should not be so again. In 
the reign of the Emperor Charles V., who was also 
known as Charles I. of Spain, the Spanish king ruled 
not only over Spain, but over the rich provinces of the 
Netherlands, over large districts of Italy, and over un- 
defined territories in America, rich in silver mines. It 
is true that from his son Philip II., husband of our 
Queen Mary, the provinces of the Netherlands revolted, ! 
excited by his malignant hostility against the Protestants. 
Some were successful in their revolt, and formed the 
country which, released from the Spanish yoke, had 
since prospered under the name of the United Provinces, 
or Holland. Portugal, also, which Philip had seized, 
had again established itself as a separate kingdom. 



2 The Age of Aiine. A.D. 1700. 

France had wrested three provinces from Spain. But 
the greater part of the dominions of King Philip were 
still joined together, Spain and the Netherlands, Italy 
and the Indies; and the crown of this ill-assorted mon- 
archy was upon the head of Charles II. 

As long as he should continue to live, no anxiety 
would be excited in the mind of any statesman. In mind 

Charie II anc * body he was> P erna P s » tlie feeblest man 
in his dominion. In infancy it had been 
doubtful whether he could be reared. Ever since, he 
had been an invalid ; he suffered from a malformation 
of his jaw, which prevented the mastication of his food. 
He was terribly ignorant, and as superstitious as he was 
ignorant. The kingdom of Spain had been misgoverned 
before, but in his time it was going to ruin. Every de- 
partment of the State was in disorder ; the law courts, 
the army, the finances. As long as he could be kept 
alive, no foreign statesman would feel in the least afraid 
of Spanish ambition ; but his death was imminent, and 
great uneasiness was felt as to the succession to his crown. 
Charles was childless. The crown would therefore de- 
volve upon the descendants either of one of his sisters 
or of his aunt. Their respective claims will 
^ h . e be best explained by a reference to the ac- 

claimants. l J 

companying table. According to the ordi- 
nary rules of inheritance, the dauphin, as son of his 
eldest sister, had the best right ; but Lewis XIV. and 
Maria Theresa had on their marriage renounced for their 
posterity all claims to the succession, and ratified this 
renunciation with the most solemn oaths On the mar- 
riage of Leopold, the emperor, to her sister, a similar 
renunciation had been made, though, according to the 
notions of the day, the oaths were less sacred, and the 
agreement was regarded as less binding. The issue of 



The Spanish Succession. 



to 



1 «>•« 



•|"3^S-5 -."5 ; 






P-. W 

I— I '— 



rt « B 



2 « 

fc-S, 



SI 






. a p. c< 6 _ 



" U * ° -a .2 ^ 



OJ 2 rt 

rt rt p. ° g 

rt § . *"3 

2 « S ° 



> 



_rj 'm Qrt *i 

-H go « j 



H O 



e rt 



rt 55 c 

^ ii * p. 

OvmC/5 






o 



a*. 

•-< U > 

X « rt 

rt S m 



c 5 

■ftfiM 

Prt-a 



'Eg* 






•^ ** tJ'3 

a.^ rt p. 

"rt £> W> 
o rt.S 

t! IX 

JJH « 
fcd «-Q 

« M 

H 



^ow 



O <fl u c " O « 

•Jts'sJ.&lil 



c = a - - p. 



Ah 









.!2 °^ 2 </"° ° rtX 
> v 5 £>_'£ T3 c is « 



w 



4 The Age of An?ie. a.d. 1700. 

this marriage was a daughter, who had married the 
Elector of Bavaria. Her claim would pass to her son, 
Joseph, the Electoral Prince of Bavaria. The third 
claimant was the emperor himself, the cousin of King 
Charles. His claim was the weakest by descent, but 
the strongest in that, at his mother's marriage, no re- 
nunciation had been effected. 

The King of France and the emperor were fully 
aware that an absolute union of the Spanish Crown 
either with that of France or with the em- 
pire would never be permitted. The dau- 
phin, therefore, and the emperor, agreed each to waive 
his right in favor of his second son. The three claim- 
ants stood forth as Philip, Duke of Anjou; Joseph, the 
Electoral Prince ; and the Archduke Charles. 

It was manifest that it would be best for the peace of 
Europe that the crown should pass to some prince of 
small power, or one whose power was distant 
from Spain. Anxiety was especially felt lest 
it should fall to a French prince ; for France was now 
occupying the position in Europe once held by Spain, 
and the prospect of a union of the two countries under 
princes of the same family caused a genuine alarm, 
especially amongst Protestant statesmen. Lewis XIV. 
is called in French history "the great king." He was the 
founder of that policy of the aggrandisement of France 
at the expense of her neighbors which has marked 
French history since. Earlier French statesmen and 
French kings had the notion of an equilibrium in 
European politics, France being one amongst equal 
States ; but Lewis wished to give her supremacy. Owing 
to her wise interference on behalf of toleration in Ger- 
many, in the Great Thirty Years' War, France had, 
about the time of the accession of Lewis, attained very 



a.d. 1697. The Spanish Succession. 5 

considerable power. By unscrupulous encroachments, 
by interfering in the affairs of Germany — weakened as 
she was by her long struggle — and by vigorous fighting 
under most skilful generals, Lewis had increased that 
power. There was, indeed, reason to fear for the liberties 
of Europe if Spain were joined to France ; nor was there 
room for doubt that this power would be hostile to the 
cause of Protestantism. The wise toleration which 
Henry of Navarre had granted to the Huguenots by the 
Edict of Nantes had been cancelled by the revocation 
of that charter. The influence of the Jesuits was plainly 
visible on the French Court. 

Lewis had one great opponent, William of Orange. 
His ancestor, William the Silent, had opposed Philip of 
Spain whose power was dangerous to Europe 
and to Protestantism ; and young William William of 
devoted his life to the same cause — the de- 
fence of the liberties of Europe, especially in religion. 
At first he stood forward only as the ruler of Holland ; 
but when the Revolution placed him on the throne of 
England, that country, which, under Charles II., had 
been but the vassal, the paid servant of France, re- 
sumed her rightful position at the head of the Protestant 
cause. It is not necessary here to recapitulate the 
different events that mark stages in the contest between 
William and Lewis. The last tedious war, in which 
England had, for the most part, been successful at sea, 
and France on land, was ended with the Treaty of Rys- 
wick, which, whilst it acquiesced in many of Lewis's 
conquests, yet settled the Jacobite question. Lewis had 
undertaken to recognise William as King of England, 
and nevermore to assist the exiled James in his attempts 
to regain the crown. 

The peace was eagerly welcomed. England and 



6 The Age of Anne. a.d. 1698. 

France alike were tired of war ; and the rulers of the 

two countries, reluctant that the peace of 

Ryswick. Europe should be disturbed by this new 

A.D. l6Q7. ... 

question with respect to the succession to 

the crown of Spain, desired to arrange it without fighting. 

The negotiations between William and Lewis upon 

this subject were long and anxious. They began when 

Bentinck, Duke of Portland, once William's 
Son tfep?" greatest friend, and still one of his most 

trusted advisers, was sent on an embassy to 
Versailles. They continued when Tallard, a distinguished 
French nobleman and general, was sent by Lewis on a 
special embassy to England. They were brought to a 
point at Loo, William's favourite Dutch palace, to which, 
when released from cares of State in England, he always 
hastened. The result was the First Treaty of Partition. 
When Lewis found that the English and the Dutch 
would not consent to the Spanish dominion passing to a 
French prince, even if shorn of some of its territories, 
he agreed that it should fall to the Electoral Prince of 
Bavaria, provided that France received an equivalent 
for this concession. The price was Naples and Sicily, 
as a separate kingdom for the Duke of Anjou, and the 
province of Guipuscoa, in the north of Spain, to be 
added to France. The Archduke Charles was to have 
the Milanese. 

Had the King of Spain died, as was expected, soon 
after the signing of this treaty, there is little doubt it 

would have been quietly carried out. But, 
Joseph °and instead of the death of King Charles, who 

ttonlK^" had lon S been m ' and wh0Se death WaS 
constantly expected, the young prince Jo- 
seph fell ill of the small-pox and died at Brussels. All 
the agreements that had been made were useless ; and 



a.d. 1 700. The Spanish Succession. 7 

the old difficulty returned. Negotiations began again 
(1700). The claimants were now reduced to two— the 
dauphin's son, Philip of Anjou; and the Archduke 
Charles, the son of the emperor. The price of France 
therefore rose. England and Holland supported the 
claim of the Archduke Charles. It was therefore at 
length determined that the archduke should be King of 
Spain; that Philip of Anjou should have Naples and 
Sicily as before ; that not only Guipuscoa but also the 
Milanese should fall to France ; and it was intended 
that France should exchange the latter province for 
Lorraine, which lay more convenient. 

It was natural that these treaties should produce great 
soreness in Spain. The Spaniards had long been at the 
head of a great power in Europe ; and now 
their territories were to be divided, and their irritation of 

Spain. 

consent was not even asked. The Castil- 
ians were the proudest of all Spaniards, and had long 
been the ruling class in the country ; they felt it the 
most. The dishonor to Spain was well expressed in a 
famous political satire, published towards the end of 
Queen Anne's reign, "Arbuthnot's History of John 
Bull," from which the popular name for an Englishman 
is taken. Old Lord Strutt, the King of Spain, is dying ; 
and there assemble with measuring poles and ink-horns 
to divide his estate, Lewis Baboon (France), his neigh- 
bor, John Bull (England), his tailor, and Nick Frog, 
(Holland), his runaway servant. But the real question 
as to the iniquity of the partition is not settled here. 
The peace of Europe was more important than the honour 
of the Castilians, and the object of the treaty was to 
keep the nations at peace. 

The soreness in Spain, however, vented itself in anger 
not against Lewis, but against William. The ill-feeling 



8 The Age of Anne. a.d. 1700. 

with respect to him, unfortunately, was 
aggravated by another matter. The Span- 
iards claimed for themselves the whole coast of Central 
America. It had occurred some years before to a 
visionary Scotchman, named William Paterson, who 
had not always shown the qualities of a visionary, for he 
was the founder of the Bank of England, to lead a set- 
tlement to Darien, on the Isthmus of Panama. He re- 
presented in glowing terms to his countrymen the 
splendor of the country, where Nature produced her 
fruits little assisted by the labour of man, and the almost 
certain wealth that would accrue to Scotland. Paterson 
predicted that the whole trade with India would be di- 
verted from its existing channels and pass across the 
Isthmus of Panama. The scheme created the greatest 
enthusiasm throughout Scotland. Everyone was anxious 
to obtain shares in the company which was formed. 
Two ships were fitted out, and the Darien company 
obtained a charter from William's representatives, the 
government in Scotland. The expedition failed, as it 
was sure to fail, seeing that the settlers knew nothing 
of the climate or of the country in which they were to 
settle. It failed utterly and entirely. Many fell victims 
to disease and starvation ; a few escaped with their lives. 
This failure brought the ill-will of Scotland against 
William ; the attempt roused the ill-will of England, 
jealous for her Indian trade, as well as the fierce anger 
of Spain. 

Moreover, the English people did not want to inter- 
fere in the affairs of Spain. They were tired of fighting, 
n . . and on that account hostile to the policy of 

Opposition r j 

to William William. A House of Commons had been 
ngan . returned, pledged to a considerable reduc- 
tion of the armv, and determined to secure that in the 



a.d. 1700. Spanish Succession. 9 

English army there should be no foreigners. William's 
favourite Dutch regiment, the Blue Guards, had to leave 
England. There was also indignation against William 
because he had granted to his Dutch friends estates that 
had been forfeited to the Crown. The opposition to the 
king had, indeed, been carried so far that he threatened 
to resign the crown, and had actually written the speech 
with which he should resign it, a speech which is still 
extant. Fortunately he never carried out this threat ; 
but the conduct of the Spaniards, singling him out for 
their indignation about the Partition Treaties, shows that 
his power was not the same three years after as it had 
been when the Peace of Ryswick was signed. The 
Spaniards knew well the humiliation which the Parlia- 
ment was inflicting on him. 

The ruling classes in Spain, whose one great thought 
was how to keep the vast monarchy together, found it 
necessary to select one of the two claimants, 
and selected the more powerful. There Il? e ? ril, ¥ < J f 

r Charles II. 

were two parties at the Spanish Court, the 
larger and more earnest party in favour of the French 
succession, and another in favour of the House of Aus- 
tria. But the French party prevailed. When the event 
so long expected at last took place, and King Charles 
died, it was found that he had recently signed a will, by 
which Ije left his kingdom undivided to Philip, Duke of 
Anjou, the second son of the dauphin. William was in 
no position to resist. Lewis, bound neither by his oaths 
of renunciation nor by the sacredness of treaties, with- 
out hesitation permitted his grandson to accept the in- 
heritance ; and the temper in which he did so was well 
illustrated by the speech with which he is said to have 
dismissed him to take up his crown — II rty a plies de 
Pyrenees — " The Pyrenees exist no longer." Philip 



io The Age of Anne. a. d. 1701. 

Phihp v. went to Spain, where he was crowned and 

of Spain. . 

quietly received by the people as Philip V. 
It would seem as if Lewis were going to have his own 
way ; and if he had been careful neither to offend the 
people of England, nor to alarm the Dutch, 

Lewis makes f . . .. . . . . , 

three mis- it is more than possible that there would 

have been no war. William, and the lead- 
ing statesmen of Holland, might have felt indignation 
at the undoing of their work, and might have given their 
sympathies to the Archduke Charles. But they were 
powerless, until Lewis committed a series of mistakes, 
which brought the war upon him. (1.) When Philip 
went to Spain, his grandfather, by letters patent, reserved 
his right of succession to the French Crown. By this 
the fear of a union between the two countries was in- 
creased. (2.) King Lewis put French garrisons into 
towns of the Spanish Netherlands, showing that he re- 
garded those towns as now so closely united with 
France, that he might treat them as his own. He even 
proposed that the Netherlands should be ceded to him, 
as his government was so much nearer and more con- 
venient than that of Spain. By this the fears of the 
Dutch were excited. But, however strongly William 
might feel this, the English people were still indifferent. 
(3.) When James II., the exiled King of England, died 
at St. Germains, Lewis, visiting him on his death-bed, 
was moved to promise that he would recognize his son 
as the King of England. On the death of James, his 
son James, usually known as the Old Pretender, was, 
with all due formality, recognised at Versailles ; and the 
English people were at last aroused. The English 
ambassador was recalled from France ; the French 
ambassador quickly received orders to leave London. 
The Parliament that had grudged supplies to William 



ad 1702. The Spanish Succession. 11 

was dissolved. Amid the greatest excitement, another 
was elected, giving a large majority to the friends of 
William, and the country in many ways was now as 
eager as it had previously been disinclined for war. 

For such an occasion as this William had waited. 
However much he might deplore that the peace of Eu- 
rope should once more be broken — although • „ 

,1 1 , • , r , , , The Grand 

he knew that his own health was feeble, and Alliance of 

that he could not live much longer, the the Hague - 
stern purpose of his life did not desert him. That pur- 
pose had been opposition to the growing power of Lewis. 
Since the death of King Charles he had laboured to ex- 
cite resistance to France among the European powers, 
The backwardness of the English had tied his hands ; 
but now, through the chivalrous folly or insolence of 
Lewis, this difficulty had been removed. The league of 
the European powers, known as the Grand Alliance, was 
revived, the objects of which were to place the Archduke 
Charles on the throne of Spain, and to keep down the 
power of France. It declared first, that France was not 
to retain the Netherlands, nor to acquire the West 
Indies, and secondly, that the Crowns of France and 
Spain were never to be united. 

But the Grand Alliance was no sooner formed than its 
creator died. William had never been a strong man, he 
had suffered from many complaints, and _ , 

1- j, r 1 ,. • Death of 

was hardly ever free from asthma. His in- William, 
domitable spirit had carried him through 
scenes of toil and fatigue which would have brought even 
strong men low. His restless energy and his unceasing 
work had at last worn him out. All his doctors told him 
to prepare for death, and indeed he was ready for it. 
" You know," he said to a friend, " that I never feared 
death ; there have been times when I should have 



12 The Age of Anne. a.d. 1702. 

wished it ; but, now that this great new prospect is open- 
ing before me, I do wish to stay here a little longer." 
He was riding on his favourite horse Sorrel in Hampton- 
court Park, when the horse stumbled upon a mole-hill. 
The king was thrown, and broke his collar-bone. An 
illness ensued, which ended in a fever, and the fever 
proved fatal. 

About the character of William the Third many a 
battle has been fought His name has been made a cry 
wherewith to rouse animosities which are 
better left at peace. As no man is perfect, 
so in William's government, doubtless, mistakes may be 
found : perhaps they deserve even a harsher name. 
But the service that he rendered to England is un- 
doubted and priceless, and it was not well repaid. Dur- 
ing his later years his life was embittered by opposition 
from the English, who no longer felt the pressing need 
of his services against Stuart tyranny. He was con- 
stantly reproached with favouring his foreign friends. 
Would Englishmen have thought better of him if he had 
left his old and faithful friends unrewarded ? 

It is not, however, only or chiefly as an English king 

that William is to be judged — rather as a European 

statesman. As our fathers fought against 

A Euro- 

pean states- Napoleon to preserve the liberties of Eu- 
rope, and therewith our own, so William, 
from his earliest years to his death-bed, held constantly 
before him the one thought, how best to keep the power 
of France within bounds Germany had been left so 
divided at the peace of Westphalia that there was no one 
great State in Europe which could resist Lewis. The 
only chance was an alliance : but for an alliance it was 
necessary that there should be some one to propose and 
to maintain it ; one who could humour this ally, and 



a.d. 1643-8. Lewis XIV. 13 

persuade that ; one who, penetrated with the greatness 
of the cause, could forgive petty insults, and by his own 
warmth make up for the coldness of others. Such an 
one was William. 

Though William died, his work lived on. The ma- 
chine, it has been said, was put together on true prin- 
ciples, and it continued in motion, though the master- 
workman was gone. 



CHAPTER II. 



LEWIS XIV. 



It is impossible to understand any period of history 
without bearing in mind the character of the earlier 
times. Although this little work is intended as a history 
of only one and that a short period, the first fourteen 
years of the last century — it is advisable to 
give some account of the years that pre- . N ° P e r ,od 
ceded it. The war, which gave the chief 
significance to the period, was the fifth and last act of a 
long political and military drama, in which, with almost 
poetical justice, the villain of the play receives his de- 
serts. Of this drama, France and all that borders on 
France is the theatre. The chief actor is the King of 
France. 

Lewis XIV. succeeded to the throne in 1643, being 
then only a little boy. He died in 1714. During almqst 
all the seventy-two years of his reign France 
was at war. There were five general trea- £jjjg ^v 
ties of pacification, which mark five stages 
in the reign, and form the termination of the five acts 
in the drama. They are called the treaties of Wei;t- 



14 The Age of Anne. ad. 1661. 

phalia, Aix-la-Chapelle, Nymwegen, Rysvvick, and Ut- 
recht. Of the last of these, a much fuller account will 
be found in its place further on in this volume. The 
earlier history will be best followed by keeping these 
treaties as dividing points, and filling up the intervals. 
The peace of Westphalia was the peace which ended 
the Thirty Years' War. By judicious interference in the 
later part of that war France had been able 

Peace of . 

Westphalia. to gain her object. Germany was divided 
4 ' into many independent states, jealous of 

each other. By the treaties a balance of power was 
established in Germany between the two forms of reli- 
gion, the Roman Catholic and the Protestant. The 
Protestant party consisted, moreover, of two sections, 
who bitterly opposed each other — the Lutherans and the 
Calvinists. The result was, that Germany was weak, 
and that France had no danger or shadow of danger to 
fear from that side. It was not until 1870 that Germany 
recovered from the exhaustion and disunion which were 
the cruel and lasting effects of the Thirty Years' War. 

As Lewis was so young on succeeding to his father's 
throne, he was, of course, at first merely a nominal 
ruler. The work of his predecessors, and 
of the ministers who governed France during 
his minority, prepared the way for his future policy of 
ambition. On the death of Mazarin, the greatest of 
these regents, Lewis, then aged twenty-three, came to 
his council of ministers and informed them, much to 
their astonishment, that henceforth he would manage 
his own affairs. From 1661, until his death, Lewis 
shaped his own policy, and is alone responsible for it. 
He had able ministers and was well served by them ; 
but he was their master. This policy can only be de- 
scribed as a course of unvarying ambition, and of per- 



ad. 1667. Lewis XIV. 15 

petual attempts to enlarge and exalt France at the 
expense of her neighbours. 

In the history of some countries the personal charac- 
ter of the sovereign is not an important element in cal- 
culations. The policy of England for several 

years wavered less and was more vigorouslv Character ©1 

• i i 1 r , 1 ' Lew,s XIV - 

carried out when the feeble Anne was on 

the throne, than under the energetic and able William. 
But with French history the case is different, especially 
with Lewis XIV. Letat, c'est moi ! " The State, I am 
the State ! " was his favourite motto, which he carried out 
to the letter, so that his reign may be regarded as a per- 
fect embodiment of absolutism. His best quality, and 
one most befitting his position, though not too common 
amongst kings, was industry. He was indefatigable in 
the details of work. Indeed, he needed all his indus- 
try since he took upon himself the work which had be- 
fore been done by several Secretaries of State. He had 
capacity also, — " enough," said Mazarin, a competent 
judge, "for four kings and one honest man." Some 
writers have credited him with the virtues of generosity 
and religion. His generosity, however, was only a form 
of pride; his religion was bigotry. When James was ex- 
iled from England, Lewis received him with magnifi- 
cence, and provided him with a palace as a residence. 
But such generosity cost him nothing, and it was pleasant 
to have kings at his board. His religion was a religion 
of externals. Had he been a sincere Catholic he could 
not have treated the Pope with the insolence which he 
showed towards him. Had he been possessed at all by 
the real spirit of religion, it must have interfered with 
his cruelty, with his indifference to the sufferings of sub- 
jects or foes, with his reckless and insatiable ambition. 
" By that sin fell the angels." There is an ambition 



16 The Age of Anne. a.d. 1667. 

which might seem almost worth the price of an angel's 
fall, but the French king's ambition was only to add to 
his territory, rood after rood, wrested with or without 
pretext from his neighbour. In the furtherance of his 
ambition he was entirely without scruple. 

In the forty years that intervened between Lewis' real 
accession to power and the close of the cen- 
tury, there were three great wars besides 
minor raids. 

The first was undertaken against Spain for the main- 
tenance of a claim upon the Duchy of Brabant. There 
was a law in Brabant that all the issue of a 
Succession nrst marriage, female as well as male, should 

to Brabant. succeed to a fief or an estate before even the 

1007. 

sons of a second marriage. In virtue of this 
law, upon the death of the King of Spain and the acces- 
sion of his son Charles, the weak and sickly prince, 
whose death caused the contest that filled the commence- 
ment of the next century, and who was then an infant, 
Lewis laid claim to the Duchy of Brabant and to other 
provinces of the Netherlands in right of his wife, who 
was Charles's half-sister. The claim was bad for two 
reasons. Firstly, the law applied only to private property, 
and had never been held to apply to the sovereign. 
Secondly, as has been said, before Lewis's marriage to 
the Spanish princess, solemn renunciation had been 
made of all rights which might pass to him through it. 
But on this, as on the later occasion, the arbitrary Lewis 
did not allow such trifles as oaths or treaties to hinder 
him from acting as he pleased. He had a strong army, 
and might with him was enough. But opposition ap- 
peared where he least expected it. 

During the seventeenth century England was under 
the dominion of the Stuarts, whose foreign policy cannot 



a.d. 1668. Lewis XIV. 17 

be described as glorious or successful. Dur- _ , , 

r , • , English 

ing the greater part of their reign, the strug- foreign 
gle with their Parliaments gave them neither Seventeenth 
leisure nor opportunity for foreign affairs. century. 
Whilst the Stuarts were anxious to rule without Parlia- 
ments, to be kings indeed, like the French kings, and 
whilst they were meeting with strong opposition from 
Englishmen who preferred the old lines of the Constitu- 
tion, it was not likely that they would engage in foreign 
war. For wars cost money, and as the raising of money 
was their difficulty, they were naturally determined to 
ask for as little as possible. The sympathy of the people 
of England was very largely with the Protestants of the 
Continent. Remembering the greatness of Elizabeth's 
England, the people would very gladly have seen their 
country take her place at the head of the Protestant 
cause. When the Thirty Years' War broke out, they 
would gladly have seen James send support to Elizabeth, 
his beautiful daughter, for one winter Queen of Bohemia. 
Four times during the century England came thus to the 
front, under Elizabeth, Oliver Cromwell, Sir William 
Temple, and William of Orange. 

On the third of these our attention must be fixed now. 
Sir William Temple might have made his name one of 
the greatest names amongst the statesmen 
of England. But he did not enjoy the tur- Jh^Tjiple 
moil of parliamentary struggles, and was 
fonder of learned leisure than of office. After showing 
very distinguished talents for diplomacy, he shrank 
from the effort without which great names cannot be 
made. It was however he who, at this time, when Eng- 
lish ambassador at the Hague, conceived the idea of the 
Triple Alliance, and carried it into execution. 166S is 
the only year in the reign of Charles II. on which an 



i8 The Age of Anne. a.d. 1672. 

Englishman can look back without a feeling of shame. 
England, Holland, and Sweden, the three chief Pro- 
testant powers of the north of Europe, were leagued to- 
gether to resist the continued growth of France, which 
they regarded as dangerous to their interests and to 
liberty. The formation of the League was sufficient to 
prevent the separation of Brabant from Spain, though 
in other respects the terms which it obtained 

Peace of l 

Aix-ia were not hard for France. Yet the French 

king chafed under the Peace of Aix-la- 
Chapelle. 

He thought the best way to treat England was to buy 
her king, and by the secret Treaty of Dover Lewis 
bought Charles. The price paid was a sum 
Dover" ° f °^ mone y annually as a pension, and a 

promise to help him with French troops, if 
the English Parliament proved troublesome. But 
against Holland the revenge of Lewis took the shape of 
one of the worst, because one of the most causeless, 
Second War. wars in history. His army invaded Holland, 
Holland ° f which was not ready for him, being dis- 
tracted by party spirit. One party, under 
the Grand Pensionary, De Witt, was for yielding to so 
powerful a foe ; but the terms that Lewis asked were so 
outrageous, that the mob in Amsterdam rose in fury, and 
brutally murdered De Witt. The other party regarded 
as their leader a young man, to whose family Holland 
owed priceless 'services, but not services which could 
surpass those which, from this time forward, he himself 
proceeded to render to Holland and to Eu- 
urange" ° f ro P e - William of Orange devoted himself 
to the task of opposing Lewis, the enemy of 
his country, the enemy of his faith, the enemy of free- 
dom. His heroic ardour, always keenest when danger 



A.D. 1678. Leiuis XIV. 19 

seemed darkest, inspired his countrymen to resistance. 
But so overwhelming seemed the force of the enemy 
that the Dutch were very near despair. The proposal 
was seriously entertained by them to leave their country, 
and, sailing away in their numerous ships to the Dutch 
possessions in the East, there to establish a new country 
for themselves. " There the Dutch Commonwealth 
might commence a new and more glorious existence, 
and might rear, under the Southern Cross, amidst the 
sugar canes and nutmeg trees, the Exchange of a wealth- 
ier Amsterdam, and the Schools of a more learned 
Leyden." x 

This proposal was not adopted, though a resolution 
almost as heroic was carried out. A great part of Hol- 
land lies beneath the level of the sea, from 
which the land has been rescued by the la- Cutting of 

J the dykes. 

bour of man. Huge dykes or sea-walls have 
been erected strong enough to stand against the force of 
the sea, and high enough to keep out the highest tide. 
These it was now determined to open, and to sacrifice 
the labour of centuries rather than submit to the inva- 
der. The waters were let in upon the land, and Holland 
became like a great sea from which only the towns stood 
out. The French troops were not prepared for this con- 
tingency, nor provided with a flotilla of boats. Before 
the new defender, the waves, they retreated. It is pain- 
ful to an Englishman to reflect that during this display 
of heroism his country, with its king in French pay, was 
on the side of France, though the Parliament shortly 
afterwards compelled the king to separate from the alli- 
ance, and, before the war ended, had certainly shown a 
change of policy in sanctioning the marriage of William 
of Orange to Princess Mary, the king's niece. 
1 Macaulay. 



20 The Age of Anne. a.d. 1C81. 

The war thus shamelessly begun became a European 
war, into the details of which this is not the place to 
enter. It was ended with the Treaty of 
Nymwegen. Nymwegen, which aggrandised France 
Lewi the chiefly at the expense of Spain. This peace 

Great. ma y ^ e regarded as the zenith of Lewis's 

career. It was after it that courtiers, who knew not 
wherein true greatness lies, hailed him with the name of 
Great. This title was formally bestowed on him by the 
magistrates of Paris. His later treaties mark losses of 
France rather than gain even in territory : certainly the 
wars that they closed showed loss of glory. 

The ancients believed that too great prosperity 
brought with it the wrath of the gods, and the reason of 
this belief, probably, is that those who gain 
great success cease to exercise the vigilance 
that ensures it, and become careless. It seemed to be a 
special characteristic of Lewis XIV. that success en- 
gendered an insolence which seems to us almost like 
madness ; the madness of one whom, according to the 
proverb, the gods will to destroy. With mere ordinary 
care, as has been already shown, he might, later in his 
reign, have avoided the war of the Spanish Succession ; 
but the insolence that is born of triumph made him 
insult the English people and their king. So now, in the 
interval of peace which followed the Treaty of Nym- 
wegen, and which may be compared rather to a sick 
Three symp- man's broken slumbers than to the quiet 
toms of sleep of the healthy, he was guilty of three 

acts, all unjustifiable and all unnecessary, 
which brought ruin upon his head. 

The first was the seizure of Strassburg. 

In the cessions that were made to France by the Peace 
of Nymwegen was included all the territory belonging 



a.d. 1685. Lewis XI V\ 21 

to certain towns. Lewis intended this to be 

construed favourably to himself, and insti- I- Seizure of 

btrassburg. 

tuted Chambers of Re-union, composed ex- 
clusively of Frenchmen, to decide what territories had 
at any time belonged to these towns. Under cover of 
their decisions he made many additions to his do- 
minions. One, more daring than the rest, was nothing 
less than the important city of Strassburg, a free city of 
the empire. Whilst Lewis declared through his am- 
bassador at the Imperial Court that nothing was meant, 
a French army, of 40,000 men, approached Strassburg, 
as if for a review, and before any assistance could be 
sent from Germany (if any could have been sent by a 
country so divided) the city yielded to the French. 
There were only 500 soldiers within : the citizens were 
at the time stricken with typhus fever, and but few could 
bear arms. Lewis's Minister of War was present with the 
army, under whose instructions the fortifications were 
strengthened by no less an engineer than Vauban himself. 
If the first act of Lewis's madness was an outrage on 
the stranger, the second was a violation of 
justice against his own subjects. It was the tion of V Echct 

revocation of the Edict of Nantes. of Nantes. 

1685. 
A century earlier France was torn by 

civil wars, based upon religious differences. The Hu- 
guenots, or French Protestants, were not very numerous, 
but they were very earnest and zealous. At length it 
chanced that the rightful successor to the throne was 
upon their side, so that their party, ma- 
terially strengthened by the addition of 
those who were in favour of the rightful king, whatever 
his creed might be, and helped also by his valour and 
generalship, gained the upper hand. But Henry of 
Navarre found that it would be more for the interests of 



22 The Age of Anne. a.d. 1688. 

the whole people that he should accept the religion of the 
majority. He became a Catholic, but he did not forget 
his old friends. By the Edict of Nantes he guaranteed 
freedom of worship for the Huguenots, and the religious 
wars ceased. (1598.) 

Lewis XIV. had by this time fallen very much under 

the influence of Madame de Maintenon, who was a 

bigoted Roman Catholic, and a furious an- 

Persecution ° . 

?nd emigra- tagonist of the Huguenots. She persuaded 
Huguenots. Lewis to revoke the edict of his grandfather, 
l685 - and apparently after some hesitation he 

yielded to her entreaties. A persecution commenced, 
which drove the Huguenots out of the land, for they were 
not strong enough to resist. France, in this way, lost many 
peaceful and industrious citizens, who carried their skill 
and industry into other countries, especially to England 
and to Holland. The silk-weavers of Spitalfields, where 
there is still a street called Fleur-de-lys, are descendants 
of the Huguenot emigrants. Canterbury, Norwich, and 
other places received colonies of them Men, also, of a 
higher rank than the weavers, with names famous in 
literature, were amongst the emigrants. And not only 
men of peace, but skilful and practised generals, and 
many soldiers, left the country that repaid their services 
50 ungenerously, and, joining her foes, were found in 
later battles commanding or serving against France. 

Nor yet have we finished count of the injury that the 
revocation of the tolerant edict brought on France. 
We must also include the rising in the Cevennes, an in- 
surrection of the persecuted Protestants who lived in the 
Cevennes Mountains, in the south of France. 
The Ce- This took place at a time when France was 

vermes. r 

hard pressed by external enemies, and in- 
creased her difficulties in repelling them. 



a.d. 1688. Lewis XIV. 



2 3 



But as if these two acts were insufficient, Lewis added 
to them a third, which was as ill-timed as it was cruel. 

Charles II. of England, who had been a confederate 
of Lewis, was dead. His brother and successor, James, 
was still more inclined to Lewis, for he was 

_..., , . English 

a Catholic, heart and soul. During the Revolution. 
whole of his short reign he was making at- A ' D ' l688 * 
tempts to subvert the English Church, and at length the 
English people were unable longer to endure them. In 
the early part of 1688 they were beginning to look hope- 
fully across the water to William of Orange, son-in-law 
and nephew of the king. When, forty years earlier, the 
Stuarts had been forcing their will upon the English 
people, there had been no prominent member of the 
royal family upon the popular side ; but now the people 
were more fortunate, and a hope was spreading amongst 
them that William would deliver them from their troubles. 
If Lewis had been wise, he would have listened to the 
voices that warned him how strong the opposition to 
him would be if England were joined to it. He would 
have devoted himself to the work of watching William, 
and protecting James, his ally, from attack. Apparently 
Lewis was blind ; he allowed his attention to be occupied 
in another direction with a crime that he was meditating. 
The capture of Strassburg had opened for him a way 
into Germany. William of Orange set sail 
for England on November 1 ; but, in the % f th^Pa^ 
previous month, Lewis had caused a large Iggg^ 6 ' 
army to march into the Palatinate, in order 
to enforce a claim made by a princess, his sister-in-law, 
upon those territories, although the case had already 
been decided against her in the imperial courts. As this 
army could not continue to hold the country which it 
had seized, it received deliberate orders to ravage the 



24 The Age of Anne. ad. 1697. 

whole of it, to burn the towns, and to destroy the trees, 
crops, and vines. The order was as ruthlessly obeyed 
as it had been barbarously conceived. A thrill of horror 
passed through Europe. 

A league of opposition had been forming against 
Lewis, known under the name of the " League of Augs- 
burg," which, now that William had been 
Alliance of successful and the English Revolution had 
been consummated without hindrance from 
France, received the accession of England and Holland, 
and was called The Grand Alliance. 

The war that followed, the fourth act in the drama of 
Lewis' ambition, may be divided into two parts : the one 
— the attempts of Lewis to restore the exiled 
James, the campaign in Ireland, of which 
the battle of the Boyne was the centre, and the sea- 
fights in the Channel ; the other — the Continental War. 
In the former the English may be said to have been 
wholly successful ; for though the French won the battle 
of Beachy Head, that victory had no permanent results, 
and was soon and fully retrieved. In the Continental 
War the results were nearly balanced, for though the 
French won most of the pitched battles, the peculiar 
genius of William asserted itself, the qualities which 
made him more formidable after a defeat than others 
after victory. Three years before the century closed, 
this war against the Grand Alliance was 
Ryswick. brought to an end by the peace of Ryswick. 

The nations were tired of war, and wel- 
comed peace ; but the ambition of Lewis made it rather 
a cessation of hostilities than a real peace. Once more 
it was necessary to form the Grand Alliance : once more 
tojresist his encroachments. 



A.D. 1702. The New Dramatis Persona. 



CHAPTER III. 

THE NEW DRAMATIS PERSON/E. 

In accordance with the provision of the Bill of Rights, 
confirmed by the Act of Settlement, William was suc- 
ceeded on the throne by his sister-in-law, 

■* . succession 

Anne, daughter of James II. and Anne of Queen 
Hyde, daughter of the Earl of Clarendon. 

In character, and in fitness for the position of sove- 
reign, Anne was very different from William. She had 
not his discernment, nor his statesmanship, 
nor his resolution. On the contrary, she was 
without strength of character. She could not be ex- 
pected to establish a new policy, nor, through good re- 
port and evil report, to adhere to one already established. 
She had always been, and, after her accession she still 
remained, under the influence of some stronger mind. 
Such influence was essential to her. There is no feature 
in her character which is so important to recollect as 
this, for it explains a good deal of her reign, especially 
two of its salient events — her adoption and her abandon- 
ment of the Grand Alliance. 

Anne, however, though no great ruler of men, pos- 
sessed personal qualities which would have made her 
highly esteemed in private life, and which endeared her 
to her subjects. Her private character was irreproach- 
able. She was kind, affectionate, and good ; a warm 
friend, and with a humane heart. But above all she was 
sincerely religious, like both her grandfathers, and, un- 
like her father, she was warmly attached to the doctrines 
and rites of the Church of England. She often shared 
the unreasonable fears of the High Church party, and 



26 The Age of Anne. 

was easily shaken by the cry — "The Church is in 
danger!" She was very popular with the English peo- 
ple, and mainly for this reason, that she was peculiarly 
an Etiglish queen, having, as she said in her first speech 
from the throne, an " entirely English " heart. Coming 
between a Dutch king, whom many Englishmen had ac- 
cepted as a necessity, but never loved, and a German 
prince, who could not even speak their language, the 
English have always looked back with affection to her 
reign, and have enshrined her in their hearts as " Good 
Queen Anne." 

Anne had married Prince George of Demark, a man 
of dull understanding and of coarse habits. " I have 
„ , . tried him drunk, and I have tried him so- 

Husband. 

ber," said Charles II., of him, " and there 
is nothing in him." Had he been a man of more ca- 
pacity, it is not unlikely that he would have been placed 
upon the throne as William had been ; but with him it 
was impossible. To this husband Queen Anne was 
„,.., tenderly attached. By him she had a large 

family, but all of their children had died in 
infancy, with the exception of Prince William, who, in 
the last reign, had been created Duke of Gloucester. In 
him the hopes of the English people were centred. King 
William appointed Marlborough as his governor, Bishop 
Burnet as his preceptor. " My Lord," he who seldom 
paid compliments had said to Marlborough, on entrust- 
ing him with his office, " make him but what you are, 
and my nephew will be all I wish to see." But in the 
last year of the seventeenth century, the same year 
which proved fatal to the wretched King Charles of 
Spain, the young prince died. Upon his death the Act 
of Settlement was made law, by which it was decided to 
whom the crown should pass upon the death of Anne, 



The New Dra,7natis Persona. 27 

for when Anne came to the throne, aged thirty-seven, 
she was childless. She now appointed Prince George to 
the office of Lord High Admiral, an office for which he 
was manifestly unfit. 

It has been said that the queen was entirely under the 
influence of favourites. At her accession, and for many 
years before, during the whole of William's 
reign, and even earlier, she had been under Lad y Marlbo- 
the influence of Sarah Jennings, wife of the 
Duke of Marlborough, a woman of commanding mind, 
of great ambition, and with a very imperious temper. 
Her intimacy with the queen was very close. They 
were in the habit of corresponding with each other under 
assumed names. The Queen was Mrs. Morley ; the 
Duchess, Mrs. Freeman ; their husbands, Prince George 
and the Duke, were Mr. Morley and Mr. Freeman re- 
spectively. The name Freeman was, perhaps, adopted 
by the favourite as a symbol of the liberties which its 
bearer thought herself entitled to take with her friend. 
It would not be too much to say that she governed the 
queen. Some, her husband amongst the number, have 
had the faculty of charming whilst they ruled, so that the 
ruling was concealed : she had not. 

The real hero of this reign, the successor of King 
William in his policy of consistent opposition to France, 
was John Churchill, Duke of Marlborough. 
In this man were united the noblest and the ar oroug " 
meanest qualities, and it is therefore difficult to form a 
just estimate of him. For our purpose it will be sufficient 
to pass very quickly over his earlier life, and to give a 
short sketch of his character. Fortunately 
for us, at this point in his career, " that great 
man is already shaking off the slough of his baser life." 
Marlborough, as a young man, was attached to the 



28 The Age of Anne. 

household of James, Duke of York, through this dis- 
graceful fact that his sister was the prince's mistress. At 
the age of twenty-three he served in a campaign against 
the Dutch under the great Turenne, whose favourable 
notice he attracted. He rose quickly through the dif- 
ferent military grades, and shortly after James's acces- 
sion to the throne he commanded the English troops 
sent against the Pretender, Monmouth, whom he de- 
feated at the battle of Sedgemoor. James wished him 
to become a Roman Catholic ; but from this step he 
shrank, and when afterwards the Revolution took place, 
this proposal was the reason that he gave for his deser- 
tion. James, placing implicit trust in him, sent Churchill 
forward with troops against William's invading army. 
Instead of fighting William, he joined him. During 
William's reign he is, at the beginning, in positions of 
trust, but he himself does not seem certain as to his 
future, or genuine in his sympathy with the Revolution ; 
for, though he held high office under William, he yet 
intrigued with the exiled James, probably wishing to be 
safe whichever side triumphed. William discovered his 
secret correspondence with the Jacobites, and dismissed 
him from all his employments. Marlborough boasted 
of having betrayed to James, and so to the French, the 
secret of an enterprise that the English were about to 
make against Brest; which betrayal led to the failure 
of the attempt, and the loss of the commander with 800 
men. Yet before William's death Marlborough was 
reconciled to him, and as we have seen was entrusted 
by him with the important office of governor to the 
young Duke of Gloucester. It is also said that William, 
when contemplating the War of the Spanish Succession, 
designed that Marlborough should command the armies 
of the Grand Alliance. 



The New Dramatis Persona. 29 

It will be evident, from the above sketch, that if we 
begin with Marlborough's bad qualities, that which taints 
all his character and all his actions is self- 
seeking, which did not hesitate to use even 
treachery as its instrument. Nor was his treachery only 
a willingness to shift allegiance. The generation amongst 
which he had been brought up, which had seen the days 
of the Commonwealth, and of the restored Stuarts, and, 
finally, had consigned the Stuarts again to exile, must 
have held but lightly by the duty of allegiance. But 
Marlborough's was no common treachery, no ordinary 
laxity of principles in high places. If others left James 
easily, gratitude should have kept him, at least, by his 
side. The imparting of information of a military ex- 
pedition to the rulers of a country with which his own 
was at war can be excused by no blaze of glory ; nor can 
we palliate the sending of money to assist a rival to his 
sovereign's throne. The self-interest, which seems to 
have been the leading motive of conduct both in Marl- 
borough and in his wife, sometimes assumed the baser 
shape of an inordinate love of money. A nobleman % 
who was once mobbed by mistake for Marlborough in 
the time of his unpopularity, indulged in this sarcasm at 
his expense — " I will easily convince you that I am not 
my Lord Marlborough. In the first place, I have only 
two guineas about me, and, in the second place, they 
are very much at your service." Marlborough even 
grudged a pension to a servant who had saved his life. 

Yet let no one imagine that Marlborough was alto- 
gether a bad man. His great vices tainted his public 
and his private life ; but he had qualities 
which went far to redeem these, and which 
enabled him to render almost priceless services to his 
country and to Europe. He was possessed of consummate 



30 The Age of Anne. 

military genius, and courage dauntless yet not rash. He 
was never defeated in any battle. He was always ready 
to expose himself to danger provided that it was neces- 
sary. He had, also, a virtue more useful than courage 
to soldier or to statesman — calm patience ; he showed no 
excitement in the heat of battle ; he was calm and serene 
in danger as in a drawing-room. Closely allied with 
this calmness was a suavity of mind and of manners, 
which fascinated the most critical judge. Marlborough 
was a singularly handsome man, gifted with a beautiful 
face and a most perfect figure. It has been said that his 
calmness proceeded, to a great extent, from a want of 
heart; but his affection for his wife was so remarkable 
that he has often been taunted with being too much 
under her influence. If she wrote angrily to him, no 
success in war could make him happy until she had 
relented. Moreover, as a general, Marlborough was 
remarkable for his humanity ; before the battle he would 
point out to the surgeons their stations, and would take 
measures to ensure the proper treatment of the wounded. 
No general was so courteous and considerate to his 
prisoners. 

Many a character has been written of Marlborough, 
varying from the strongest praise to the severest blame. 
It would seem the true course not to temper the praise 
with the blame, and produce a verdict that should be 
neither hot nor cold, but to adopt and combine the 
strong features from each account, and to leave it to the 
moral philosopher to decide how it came to pass, as it 
assuredly did; that one man could combine the blackest 
treachery and the greediest avarice with the courage, the 
calmness, and the sweetness of Marlborough. 

Amongst English statesmen Marlborough had most 
sympathy with Sydney, Lord Godolphin ; and he in- 



77ie New Dramatis Persona. 31 

sisted that Godolphin should be appointed to 

the office of Lord High Treasurer. This ^°, rd , P°" 

° dolphin. 

ofhce is now in abeyance, or, rather, as the 
expression runs, it is in commission, that is to say, in- 
stead of one minister there are five, who are called 
the Lords of the Treasury, of whom the Prime Minister 
is one, and the Chancellor of the Exchequer another. 
From this time forward Marlborough and Godolphin 
were firm allies. Lord Godolphin, however, was not a 
statesman of a high order, but one that would be best 
described as a shrewd man of business. He was able 
to give Marlborough very useful support, for an army 
depends on its supplies, and money is the sinews of war. 
But in private life Godolphin was not superior to the 
country squires of his time. He had no taste for lit- 
erature or art, and his favourite pursuits were racing and 
cock-fighting. 

In the work which now lay before Marlborough he 
was very materially assisted by two men, Prince Eu- 
gene and Heinsius. Prince Eugene was a 
younger son of the House of Savoy. He Prince 

was born in France, and educated for the 
priesthood ; but he showed even in his studies a taste 
for the life of a soldier. Instead of theological works 
he was fond of reading Plutarch's Lives. He was a 
youth of slender figure, and King Lewis on that account 
refused him the commission for which he asked, and 
spoke contemptuously of the little abbe. This insult 
Eugene never forgot. He immediately left France, and 
entered the service of the emperor. He was thus an 
Italian, born in France, and living in Germany. In his 
signature he united the languages of the three countries, 
" Eugenio von Savoye." 

The empire had for many years been engaged in con- 



32 The Age of Anne. 

stant wars with the Turks. In these wars Eugene so 
distinguished himself that he came to be regarded as 
first general of the empire. Between him and Marl- 
borough a very warm friendship sprang up, which never 
cooled. There was no jealousy between them, but, 
whether they were working together in the same cam- 
paign, or at a distance at the head of separate armies, 
they were always one-minded in their aims and policy. 
Yet Eugene was very different from Marlborough. He 
had not the same calmness. His courage was mixed 
with daring. He was like a Fury in the day of battle, and 
as prodigal of the lives of his soldiers as he was careless 
of his own. 

The third in this triumvirate, which broke the power 
of Lewis and delivered Europe, was^iot a general, but a 
statesman. As such, his work is in the 
background, and has not been much noticed 
in histories. Yet, though not so visible, the work which 
he did in holding the members of the Grand Alliance 
together, in keeping Holland faithful to the cause, and 
in helping Marlborough with advice, was as true and 
valuable as the more brilliant exploits of others. An- 
thony Heinsius was a Dutch statesman. Shortly after 
William of Orange had carried the English Revolution 
to a successful issue, he became Grand Pensionary, a 
title which we may translate into our own political lan- 
guage by calling him Prime Minister of Holland. On en- 
tering public life he had preferred for his country a close 
alliance with France, and had been hostile to the princes 
of the House of Orange. But a visit to Versailles 
opened his eyes to the fact that the Dutch could have 
no lasting friendship with the French, who despised 
their government, and persecuted their religion. He 
changed sides, joined himself closely to William, and 



a.d. 1 70 1. 2 'lie Grand Alliance. 



33 



became one of his warmest friends and most trusted ad- 
visers. And William felt that there was no man whom 
he would leave behind him so competent and so willing 
to carry out his policy as Heinsius. 



CHAPTER IV. 



THE GRAND ALLIANCE. 

The Grand Alliance bejjirr Airly fmjjagd, it will be well to 
consider its compjrtteht^pl^tf^ 

ther on ac- 
count of the ancient dignity of the empire thVn because 
of its actual power. The office was st# j 
nominally electtvS. ^At each vacancvafSW £ he 

-r-1 ^».. ©to*.- , — i* 1 "^ Emperor. 

Electors met at P rankfort-on-Maine, and 
all the forms of an election were gone through. Some- 
times there was a show of opposition, but the empire 
had now become practically hereditary in the House of 
Hapsburg. For nearly three centuries no emperor had 
been elected who did not belong to that family. Though 
the empire gave dignity to the family, it did not give 
them power. Whatever they had of power came to 
them from their proper hereditary dominions, which 
were very heterogeneous. They were kings, and nom- 
inally elective, in Bohemia and in Hungary ; archdukes 
in Austria and in the Tyrol. The family was by no 
means incapable, but was selfish, and unable to rise to 
The conception of a union of Germany. Earlier, the 
princes of this House had been bigoted Roman Catho- 
lics, who, indeed, had brought about the Thirty Years' 
War by this very bigotry. But now the danger of en- 



34 The Age of Anne. a.d. 1701. 

croachment on the part of France, was great, and they 
were ready to join and to take advantage of the Alli- 
ance, although its members were chiefly Protestant. 
Lewis XIV. was declared " Hereditary Foe of the Holy 
Empire." Leopold I. was the emperor at the outbreak 
of the war, having been emperor for nearly fifty years. 
Shortly after the commencement, in the year after Blen- 
heim, he died, and was succeeded by his eldest son, 
Joseph, who had won some fame as a soldier, and 
who was much beloved in his own dominions, being 
generous and humane. Leopold's second son, Charles, 
was the candidate whom the allies wished to place 
upon the throne of Spain. He was by no means equal 
to his brother in merit. 

As the form of election to the empire was still kept 

up, we should notice who were the Electors. By the 

twelfth century the number had been fixed at 

£. he . seven, three of whom were ecclesiastics — the 

Electors. ' 

Archbishops of Mayence, Treves, and Co- 
logne ; and four lay princes — the Electors of Saxony, 
Brandenburg, Bohemia, and the Palatinate. In the 
seventeenth century an eighth Elector was added, 
Frederick, the Elector Palatine, son-in-law of James I. 
of England, having given his consent to be elected, — 
as a Protestant— to the kingdom of Bohemia, was de- 
feated by the Austrian prince, who was also Emperor, 
and was deprived not only of Bohemia, but also of the 
Palatinate, and, therewith, of his vote, which was given 
to the Catholic Duke of Bavaria. The Thirty Years' 
War followed ; and at the peace of Westphalia, which 
ended that war, it was contended that the vote could not 
thus be taken from the Elector Palatine. At length, to 
satisfy both parties, a vote was given to each. In 1692 
the Emperor Leopold on his own responsibility gave a 



a.d. 1701. The Grand Alliance. 35 

ninth vote to the Duke of Hanover, whose descendant 
now sits upon the throne of England, though this vote 
was not recognized by the Diet of the Empire for four- 
teen years, that is, after the outbreak of this war. The 
recognition was claimed by Hanover as its price for con- 
tinuance in the war. 

Of the nine Electors two, Cologne and 

_ . . _ * ° , How they 

Bavana, were upon the side of France. The ranged 
other two ecclesiastics, Mayence and Treves, 
were neutral. Bohemia formed part of the Emperor's 
dominions. The Elector of Saxony had recently been 
elected King of Poland, and was very busy at the eastern 
end of Germany; he could not spare energies for fight- 
ing against France. Brandenburg, the Palatinate, and 
Hanover were members of the Grand Alliance. When 
we remember what the Palatinate had lately suffered, we 
cannot wonder that it should join against France. 

Frederick, the Elector of Brandenburg, named as his 
price for joining the alliance that his electorate should 
be made into a kingdom. He was the last 
of the twelve Hohenzollern Electors of Bran- £ ing . of 

Frussia. 

denburg, and had been wishing for some 
time to be king, especially since his neighbour, the 
Elector of Saxony, had become King of Poland, and 
another neighbour, the Duke of Hanover, had been 
made Elector, with the prospect of his family inheriting 
the English Crown. He took his regal title from another 
part of his dominions, and, when the Emperor Leopold 
yielded, his Ministry, it is said, having been richly bribed, 
Frederick was crowned King of Prussia (1701). It may 
be well to remember that he was the grandfather of 
Frederick the Great, and that this was the beginning of 
the kingdom (though its earlier history before it was a 
kingdom is well worth study) which in our own day has 



36 The Age of Anne. a. d. 1702. 

extended and prospered, until its monarch has become 
the new Emperor of Germany. 

Some other minor princes of Germany joined in the 

league, such as Lewis, Prince of Baden, a*nd, for at least 

part of the war, Denmark also contributed 

Other allies. troops But> after all a ii owance has been 

made, England and Holland must be considered the 
central powers of the alliance. 

The names Holland and Dutch are instances of two 
different laws that affect names — extension and contrac- 
tion. The word " Dutch " in England is only applied 
to the people and language of Holland, but it is the same 
as the name by which the Germans, of whom the natives 
of Holland are a branch, call themselves and their 
speech. The name " Holland," properly applied to two 
out of the seven United Provinces, North and South 
Holland, has been extended to the whole seven. Hol- 
land, when the war broke out, had been a nation for 
rather more than 120 years. These seven provinces, 
lying round and to the north of the mouth of the Rhine, 
had, together with the remaining provinces of the Nether- 
lands, rebelled against the tyranny and persecution of 
Spain ; and under the lead of William the Silent, Prince 
of Orange, great-grandfather of William III. of England, 
the northern seven had after vigorous and heroic resist- 
ance gained their independence. They banded them- 
selves together in the League of Utrecht ( 1 579) into the 
Federal Commonwealth of the Seven United Provinces. 
From the time of their freedom they made great pro- 
gress. Daring mariners, eager and skilful traders, active 
colonists, in the course of a century they raised their 
small State to a high rank in Europe. It was for its size 
far the wealthiest, far the most populous, and far the 
most important. 



a.d. 1703. TJie Gra?id Alliance. 37 

After one year of the war, in 1703, the Grand Alliance 
was joined by two other powers, which at first had 
ranked themselves on the side of the French prince, — 
Savoy and Portugal. 

Victor Amadeus II. Duke "of Savoy, is one of the 
most romantic characters of the period. Though his 
territory was small, the part that he played 
in history was by no means insignificant. 
He had more than ordinary capacity, both as general and 
administrator. The virtues of chivalry, bravery, and 
generosity distinguished him, and made him warmly 
loved by his subjects. When a French emissary was 
taunting him with the destruction of his small army, he 
answered with spirit: — " I will stamp with my foot upon 
the ground, and soldiers will spring forth." His little 
land was overshadowed by its more powerful neighbour, 
and had for at least half a century before his accession 
been at the beck of the French king. Lewis sent orders 
to the duke not to harbour Protestants who had fled from 
France when the Edict of Nantes was revoked, and to 
persecute those who were in his dominion. 
Had not his predecessor done it in Crom- J^f JarVe- 
well's time, and stirred Milton's heart with io * e . R y s * 

wick. 

the tales of atrocity that were told? Victor 
Amadeus was but half-hearted in the execution of Lewis's 
cruel will, and a French marshal was sent to demand his 
capital. This drove him into open resistance, and he 
joined the League of Augsburg (1686), which had been 
recently set on foot. The armies sent against him were 
active and powerful, and he lost two battles. But great 
efforts were made to detach him from the common cause, 
and at length he made a separate peace with France, 
which was as honourable to him as if he had been vic- 
torious. His territory was to be restored; the Duke of 



38 The Age of Anne. a.d. 1703. 

Burgundy, the eldest son of the dauphin, was to marry 
his eldest daughter; he was to be treated like a king. 
On these terms he changed sides. It was said that he 
was generalissimo for the Emperor and for King Lewis 
within one month. But his separate peace was the first 
of a series, and the Treaty of Ryswick (1697) soon ended 
the war. 

When the second Grand Alliance was formed and the 
war of the Spanish Succession began, he was at first on 
the side of the French, but after a very short 
Spanish iime ne made a change, as sudden as that 

Succession which he had made in the last war, but in 
the exactly opposite direction. In order to 
secure his allegiance, not only had the Duke of Burgundy 
married his eldest daughter, in accordance with the 
treaty, but his brother Philip, Duke of Anjou, and now, 
according to the will of the late king, King of Spain, 
married his second daughter. The insolence, however, 
of a French marshal, who apparently despised a Prince 
of Savoy, and the strictness of Spanish etiquette, which 
would not allow him to sit by the side of his son-in-law, 
so vexed him, that he meditated deserting his cause. 
All hesitation was removed by an arrogant letter which 
he received from Lewis XIV. The following was their 
correspondence : — 

(The King to the Duke.) 

"Monsieur, — Since religion, honour, and your own 
signature, are of no account between us, I send my 
cousin, the Due de Vendome, to explain my will to you. 
He will give you twenty-four hours to decide." 

(Answer.— The Duke to the King.) 
" Sire, — Threats do not frighten me. I shall take the 
measures that may suit me best, relative to the unworthy 



ad. 1703. The Grand Alliance. 39 

proceedings that have been adopted towards my troops. 
I have nothing further to explain, and I decline listen- 
ing to any proposition whatever."" 

Lewis XIV. sent orders that the Savoyard troops 
should be disarmed. Victor Amadeus thereupon changed 
sides, and was for the remainder of the war bitterly 
opposed to France. At first he met with many disasters ; 
but his high courage sustained him through them all, 
and when Eugene brought an imperial army into Italy, 
the tide of war turned, and the success of the allies in that 
portion of the borders of France was by no means the least 
serious of the blows under which King Lewis staggered. 

This sketch, which is continued in the main body of 
the history, may be found of interest, placed side by side 
with the account of the kingdom of Prussia. As that is 
the beginning of the modern German Empire, so the 
descendant of Victor Amadeus is now King of United 
Italy. The Duchy of Savoy may be said to be the germ 
of modern Italy, though, strange to say, it now lies with- 
out the borders of that kingdom. 

Portugal joined the Grand Alliance in the same year 
as Savoy. During the Middle Ages Portugal had been a 
small independent kingdom, which duringr 

v t> • t> Portugal. 

the latter part of that time had devoted itself 
to the honourable work of discovery and colonisation. 
On a vacancy of the throne occurring by exhaustion of 
the previous dynasty, Philip II. of Spain became a can- 
didate ; but, being doubtful of success, he determined not 
to wait for an election, but to seize the crown by force 
of arms. For sixty years Portugal remained subject to 
Spain ; and for rather more than sixty years since it had 
been free. In this war the situation of Portugal gave it 
an importance which its size could not claim. The king 



4o 



The Age of Anne. a. d. 1703. 



hesitated at first on which side to declare, thinking that 
France would win, but recognising, also, that the fleets 
of England and Holland were strong, and that his coasts 
lay exposed to them. To secure Portugal, the Archduke 
Charles promised by a secret treaty to cede certain 
Spanish cities, and the territory called Rio de la Plata 
in South America. When this was afterwards divulged 
it created a strong feeling against Charles in Spain. A 
treaty, called the Methuen Treaty, after Paul 
Methuen Methuen, the English ambassador at Lisbon, 

Treaty. ° 

gained over Portugal to the side of the allies. 
One of the conditions of this treaty was that the wines 
of Portugal should be admitted into England at a much 
lower duty than the French wines. Such was the price 
of the accession of Portugal — a price which the English 
continued to pay for no less than 131 years. The alliance 
between England and Portugal was permanent. 

Against this league what chance had the French ? 
The confederacy was very numerous, but no reliance 
can be placed on the members of a confederacy that 
they will remain of one mind. France was a monarchy, 
and a despotic monarchy. It suffered from no divided 
counsels, but one will ruled over all. Moreover, it had a 
large and well-disciplined standing army ; and was proba- 
bly able to bring at once into the field a larger force than 
the whole confederacy. And, lastly, the French soldiers 
had hitherto been victorious on every field ; they be- 
lieved themselves and others held them to be almost 
invincible. An unprejudiced spectator at the outset 
would have said that France with Spain on her side 
would win in this contest. Such an one could not take 
into account the as yet unproved genius of Marlborough, 
or the lavish expenditure of money on the part of Eng- 
land and of Holland. 



a.d. 1 702. Opening of the War. 41 

In the same year that Savoy left her side France 
gained another ally, the Elector of Bavaria. He had 
been Governor-General of the Netherlands during the 
reign of his wife's uncle, Charles II. of Spain. It was a 
post with an enormous salary, and Brussels, the seat of 
the government, was a pleasant place of residence, 
pleasanter than his own capital, Munich. To secure his 
alliance, a promise was made by Lewis that the Elector 
should be continued in this post, and so within a year 
of the outbreak he declared himself on the side of France. 
His brother, the Elector of Cologne, was a creature of 
King Lewis, and of course upon his side, but his assis- 
tance was of no great value. 

At the beginning of the war Philip, the French can- 
didate, was aged seventeen, Charles, the Austrian arch- 
duke, fifteen. They were curiously alike in character. 
Both were dreamy and sleepy in disposition, but capable 
of obstinate opposition when once aroused, and after- 
wards became mere puppets in the hands of their wives. 
Lord Peterborough, an English general, somewhat free 
of tongue, asked if it was worth while that great nations 
should fight for such "a pair of louts." 



CHAPTER V. 

OPENING OF THE WAR. 

Section I. — Marlborough in Flanders. 
Immediately upon the declaration of war Marlborough 
was appointed Commander-in-chief of the British forces. 
Fortunately the Dutch also were easily per- Marlborough 
suaded by Heinsius to place their troops Commander- 
under the same command. Indeed, Marl- 

E 



42 The Age of Anne. a.d. 1702. 

borough became almost at once exceedingly popular 
with the Dutch people, as well as honoured and trusted 
by the Dutch statesmen. His exquisite manners ac- 
count for the popularity ; William's opinion of him for 
the trust. The standing danger of a confederacy is 
division of counsels ; and it was, therefore, well for the 
common cause that the troops of both the Dutch and 
the English — the most important of the allies in that 
quarter — should be under one general. The fact that 
there were more commanders than one ruined the cam- 
paigns elsewhere — on the Rhine and in Spain. But it 
was unfortunate that the confidence of the Dutch did 
not go so far as the abolition of their custom of sending 
with the general field-deputies, civilian members of the 
Government, without whose consent no important action 
should be undertaken. This was no special device to 
annoy Marlborough, but in his early campaigns it had 
the effect of hindering him and tying his hands. 

It must be remembered that, immediately on his 

grandson's accepting the Spanish crown, Lewis had 

seized all the strong towns in the Spanish 

J^ arI " , , Netherlands, and occupied them with French 

borough s r 

object. First troops. Many of these were fortresses 
I7 o2. ' of the first rank, and their fortifications 

had been repaired by Vauban, Until Marl- 
borough and the allies could wrest these from him, there 
could be no security for Holland from a French inva- 
sion. Before Marlborough arrived to take the command 
of the united army, the town of Kaiserswerth upon the 
Rhine, which was under the Elector of Cologne, one of 
France's few allies, had been taken. Marlborough's 
object was, starting from this town, to clear as much as 
X7 , he could of the Netherlands. He laid siege 

Venloo. " 

to, and captured several towns. At Venloo, 



ad. 1702. Opening of th e War. 43 

the first of them, much gallantry was displayed in an 
attack upon a fort. One young English nobleman, who 
had risen from a sick bed, offered every farthing he had 
to the man who would lift him over the palisades. There 
was no resisting such a spirit. The town itself soon ca- 
pitulated, its surrender being hastened by an accident. 
The besiegers received orders to fire a salute in honour 
of a victory which the allies had won upon the Rhine. 
The defenders thought it was the commencement of a 
general attack, and they yielded at once. Liege was the 
seat of an independent prince-bishop, but it did not on 
that account escape its share of war. The French had 
placed a garrison in it, and the allies took it by storm. 

The result of this first campaign of Marl- 
borough was that he cleared from French Result of 

t campaign. 

occupation a wedge, with Liege as its apex, 
the Rhine as its base, and the Meuse as one of its sides, 
and that he had cut the French off from the lower valley 
of the Rhine, and thereby protected the Dutch frontier 
at one of its most vulnerable parts. 

At the conclusion of this campaign Marlborough was 
very near being taken prisoner. The boat in which he 
was proceeding down the Meuse was seized Marf . 
by some Frenchmen, and he himself was borough in 

* , danger. 

only saved by the quick wit of his servant, 
who put into his hand an old passport belonging to his 
brother. The news of his supposed capture spread the 
greatest consternation through Holland, where his ser- 
vices were beginning to be appreciated. And great was 
the joy when it was discovered that the capture had not 
been effected. 

In honour of his services Marlborough was made a 
duke, and a solemn Te Deum was played in St. Paul's 
Cathedral, the queen attending in all state. It was the 



44 The Age of Anne. a.d. 1702-3, 

first real check for many years that the French had 
received. 

The campaign of the second year was by no means 

so successful. The French were concentrating their 

strength on their efforts in other parts ; but 

Second Marlborough was unable to use his oppor- 

campaign. ° r r 

tunity because he was hampered by the 
field deputies, and by Dutch colleagues, nominally his 
subordinates. One of these generals distinguished him- 
self by running away from the enemy, and himself 
bringing news that his own troops were cut to pieces, 
when the truth was that, relieved of his presence, they had 
fought bravely, even if they had not actually won a vic- 
tory. Marlborough's own wish was to make a bold 
attack on Antwerp, but by these thwartings he was pre- 
vented from carrying out his design. The results of his 

campaign, therefore, were meagre ; but he 

managed to widen the base of his triangular 
wedge by the capture of Bonn on the Rhine, and to 
drive it a little further home by the capture of the for- 
tress of Huy, which is higher up the Meuse Valley than 
Liege, being about half-way to Namur. 

At the close of that year the Archduke Charles, on 
his way to Spain, paid a visit to the Low Countries, and 

afterwards to England. He presented Marl- 
duke Charles borough with his portrait and with a sword 
borough 1 " 1 " set in diamonds. Thus early in the war 

must Charles have recognised that almost 
his only hope of success lay in Marlborough's general- 
ship. 

Section II. — Campaigns in Germany and elsewhere. 
Besides Marlborough's first campaign in the Low 
Countries, there was also fighting elsewhere in the first 



A . d . 1702. Opening of the War. 45 

year of the war. On the Upper Rhine Prince 
Lewis of Baden succeeded in taking the 
town of Landau, which was held by the French. It was 
in honour of this that the salute was being fired which 
led to the capture of Venloo. Prince Lewis was a 
soldier of the old school, personally brave, but very 
difficult to set in motion, very crotchety about the rules 
of tactics, and not apt to imbibe new ideas about them. 
He was shortly after this beaten by a French marshal. 

There was fighting also in Italy, where the allied 
troops were commanded by Prince Eugene. Mantua 
and Milan had both declared for Philip of 
Anjou, and it was necessary for Eugene to ° n tay ' 
offer battle, in order to secure the imperial interests in 
North Italy. He won a brilliant victory at Cremona, in 
which the French general was taken prisoner. By this 
he protected the Empire for a time from any invasion 
by way of the Italian passes into Tyrol. 

In the second year of the war Lewis and his war 
ministers seemed to have resolved to make a vigorous 
attack upon the Empire. The Empire was 
the weakest of the allies, because the terri- Attack on 

the Empire. 

tories of the Empire lay most exposed to 
attack. An army was sent to co-operate with the Elector 
of Bavaria, who had now declared in favour of France. 
It had no difficulty in escaping from Lewis of Baden, 
and then, by marching through the Black Forest, it 
effected a junction with the Elector of Bavaria. A 
campaign in Tyrol ensued, in which the capital Inns- 
bruck, and the strong fortress of Kufstein, commanding 
the Brenner Pass, were captured by the Bavarians. But 
the peasantry rose against the invaders, and D f f 
they were forced to retire. A battle was allies at 
fought at Hochstadt, close by the field where and\»ndau. 



46 The Age of Anne. a.d. 1702. 

Marlborough defeated the French next year, but the 
imperialists were routed. Another French army retook 
Landau, so that the general result of the campaign in 
Germany was very favourable to the French. 

Meanwhile in another quarter the English had been 
engaged in a fight which did not add lustre to their 
honour. Admiral Benbow was a brave old sailor, popular 
with his men but hated by his officers, whom he kept to 
their work. He was acting against a French squadron 
in the West Indies, and making a most gallant fight, 
which he would have won if he had not been deserted 
by some of his captains. He was himself struck by 
several shots and mortally wounded, but he survived 
long enough to bring the traitors to court-martial. Two 
of them were shot for cowardice and one dismissed from 
the service. But it was believed that the reason for their 
conduct was as much hatred of their admiral as fear of 
the enemy's cannon balls. 



Section III. — Spain. 

It was to be expected that, in a war which was about 
Spain, an expedition would be made against Spain itself. 
King William had planned an expedition 
against Cadiz, once the scene of a great 
English triumph, when Essex " singed the King of 
Spain's beard," and it was determined now to carry out 
this plan. Cadiz, was called the golden gate of the In- 
dies, because all the wealth of the mines in Spanish 
America entered Europe there. The Spaniards were 
very weak : they were without money and without troops. 
If the English had made a vigorous and well-directed 
effort, they would probably have taken Cadiz. The com- 
mand of the force was given to the Duke of Ormond, 






a.d. 1702 Opening of the War. 47 

who had in William's battles shown great bravery, but 
who had not the faculty of commanding. The navy 
was entrusted to a gallant sailor, Sir George Rooke. A 
contingent of Dutch troops was employed under a 
Dutch general. But Ormond was wholly unable to pre- 
serve discipline, and national jealousy led to disturbances 
between the English and the Dutch. The orders were 
not very clear, and Rooke made merry over them. 
They were to conciliate the Spaniards to the cause of 
Charles by making an attack on their towns. The 
Spaniards armed themselves under a brave old noble- 
man, the Marquis of Villadarias, who, having but few 
troops wherewith to defend Cadiz, resorted to the expe- 
dient of lighting watch-fires sufficient for a large force, 
and so deceived the allies Two small towns were taken, 
but the men could not be restrained from plundering 
them, shamelessly firing even the churches in their Pro- 
testant fury. Thus, instead of conciliating, they roused 
the fierce hostility of the Spaniards. After a month a 
council of war decided that the enterprise should be 
abandoned. 

Fortunately for the credit of England, on the voyage 
home a chance was offered for the fleet to distinguish 
itself. News was brought that the yearly „. 

Vigo and 

fleet of Spanish galleons laden with treasure the treasure 
had put into Vigo Bay. The law of Span- s ips ' I? ° 2 ' 
ish trade was that these galleons could unload only at 
Cadiz. As the English fleet was in front of Cadiz, they 
had taken refuge at Vigo. If they could have received 
permission to unload, all the treasure might have been 
saved for Spain. The jealous officials at Cadiz, however, 
refused this permission, and although the higher author- 
ities at Madrid granted it, it arrived only after a delay 
that proved fatal. The Spaniards at Vigo placed a 



48 The Age of Anne. a.d. 1703. 

boom or barrier of masts and spars across the mouth of 
the harbour, where they also manned two small forts. 

The hope of plunder and the desire to recover the 
reputation which they had lost before Cadiz stimulated 
the allies to great efforts at Vigo. Whilst the English 
soldiers under Ormond scaled and took the forts, a 
gallant sea-fight ensued, in which victory fell to the 
English. The ships charged, and broke the boom. It 
is uncertain what became of the greater part of the trea- 
we : enough fell into the hands of the assailants to 
reward them for their enterprise. There are some who 
uimk that the remainder still lies at the bottom of Vigo 
harbour ; but others argue that the interval which elapsed 
between the appearance of the allies and their attack 
was sufficient to enable much of it to be landed and re- 
moved into the interior. 

The English Government did not send any expedition 

into Spain in the next year ; but tried first by means of 

diplomacy to attach the King of Portugal to 

Earl of the cause of the Grand Alliance and of the 

Oalway m 

Portugal. Archduke Charles. When they had at 

length succeeded in this, it was determined 
to attack Spain at the same time from the east and from 
the west. The army from the west consisted of Portu- 
guese levies and English troops : it did not do much, 
until the command was given to the Earl of Galway, a 
French Protestant, who, escaping from the intolerance 
of France, had been honoured with a commission in the 
English army by King William, and later with an Irish 
peerage. He had already earned a reputation for 
bravery at the Battle of the Boyne, and possessed a 
certain amount of military skill, but he lacked the power 
of adapting his skill to new circumstances. Strange to 
say, whilst the allied army was commanded by a French- 



a.d. 1704. Opening of the War. 49 

nnan, the army that was opposed to it was commanded 
by an Englishman. For against Portugal Lewis had 
sent a large army into Spain to help to fight the battles 
of his grandson* This force he placed under the Duke 
of Berwick, the illegitimate son of James II. and Ara- 
bella Churchill, Marlborough's sister — a cold, stern man 
and an excellent general. 

Meanwhile Sir George Rooke had been making an 
attempt upon the opposite coast of Spain. He had 
prepared to make an attack on Barcelona, an important 
commercial city, and one that was believed to have 
much sympathy with the archduke. But the troops which 
he had on board were insufficient, and the malcontents 
in the city, who had expected a large force and the pre- 
sence of the archduke himself, were disappointed. 
Rooke, therefore, was obliged to retire. As the force 
was returning, a very important place fell almost by 
accident, into the hands of the English. Gibraltar was 
not then the strong place that the art of 
fortification has made it since; but it was Gfbraitar° 
always very strong by nature ; so strong, that ^ u ^\ 3 q 
the Spaniards left but a small garrison there, 
and that garrison was careless in its watching. Rooke 
determined to make an attempt on Gibraltar, and landed 
some troops on the narrow strip of land by which the 
Rock of Gibraltar is connected with the mainland The 
day after the bombardment commenced was a Saint's 
Day, and the sentinels went to hear mass in a neigh- 
bouring chapel. Whilst they were thus employed, some 
English sailors clambered by a path, which was almost 
inaccessible, on to the top of the rock, and there hoisted 
the British flag. In spite of vigorous efforts on the part 
of enemies to haul it down, that flag has waved over the 
Rock of Gibraltar from that day (3rd August, 1704) to this. 



50 The Age of Anne. a.d. 1704. 



CHAPTER VI. 

RISING IN THE CEVENNES. 

Two regions of France seem to have been especially 

open to the influence of Protestant or Huguenot opinions. 

One is the lower valley of the Loire, where 

Geography 

of the Hu- the doctrines of the Huguenots were ac- 
cepted by the artisans of the great industrial 
towns, of which Nantes may be taken as representative. 
This town, as is well known, gave its name to the Edict 
of Toleration, by which under certain conditions freedom 
of worship had been permitted to the Hu- 
oire va ey. g Uenots# xi ie district must also be made to 
include the country to the south of the Loire, as far as 
La Rochelle, the favourite stronghold of the Huguenots. 
The other part of France is the lower valley 
of the Rhone, beginning with Lyons (which 
in the persecution lost 9,000 of its silk weavers), and the 
hills which close that valley in. Upon the east side is 
Dauphiny, the home of the Vaudois ; on the western is 
the province of Languedoc, in which during the twelfth 
and earlier part of the thirteenth century the sect of the 
Albigenses was strong. In several points the Albigenses 
resemble the later Protestants — in their opposition to 
the Pope, in their indignation against the corruptions of 
the Church, and in their vehement zeal for a purer form 
of faith based upon the Scriptures. The Albigenses were 
put down after a cruel persecution, which is sometimes 
dignified with the title of the Albigensian Crusade. But 
it would seem as if memories of this earlier struggle, the 



ch. vi. Rising iti the Cevennes. 51 

seed of religion, which is found in the blood of martyrs, 
remained in the country where they had laid down their 
lives. When persecution broke out in the middle of the 
reign of Lewis XIV., the Huguenots of Northern and 
Middle France saved themselves by flight to happier 
countries, or by an acceptance of the dominant faith. 
The regions where resistance was found were the natural 
homes of liberty, the mountains of the south, first, among 
the Vaudois, and, secondly, in the Cevennes. 

Cevennes is the name of the range of mountains that 
runs nearly parallel to the Rhone, at some little distance 
from its right bank. At the southern end the 
range separates from the direction of the 
river, trending towards the Pyrenees, leaving a marshy 
plain between the mountains and the Mediterranean, in 
the midst of which is situated the town of Nisme. The 
hills are of volcanic origin though the volcanoes are 
extinct. They are rough and precipitous, with m; ivy 
caves and fissures, yet in many places thickly covf red 
with forest trees. It is just the country in which a few 
peasants, well acquainted with footpaths and by-ifays, 
might keep at bay a regular army, even though its 
soldiers were many times more numerous than they. 

Mixed with the pure religion of this simple mountain 
folk there was certainly much fanaticism. As the per- 
secution increased in intensity, many amongst them pro- 
fessed to be inspired ; and shortly after the opening of 
the new century the inspirations took the form of exhor- 
tations to resist. It was remarked that the spirit of 
prophecy fell chiefly upon the young, and that in the in- 
surrection which followed the leaders were, young. In 
July, 1702, the very year in which the War of the Suc- 
cession commenced, and shortly after that war had been 
proclaimed, fifty of the persecuted, excited to resistance 



§z The Age of Anne. a.d. 1702. 

by the prophets, met in a forest, under three tall beech 

trees. There they determined to attack their persecutors. 

The insurgents became known as the Cami- 

The Cami- sards, or "wearers of the white frock:" but 

sards. 

it is not certain whether this was tr e ordinary 
smock-frock of the country peasants, or a special dress, 
chosen that the wearers might be visible to each other 
on a dark night. The fighting that arose out of this in- 
surrection, to which the name "War of the Blouses" has 
been given } cannot properly be called a war: it was 
rather a senes of raids. The Camisards would issue 
forth from their mountain fastnesses, anc\ make an at- 
tack upon a priest who had persecuted them, upon a 
monastery, or upon a troop of Royalist soldiers. The 
attack over, or the enemy proving too strong, they would 
retreat at once to die hill-tops again. They knew all the 
paths, and they could climb like their own sheep or goats. 
All the peasants sympathised with them, and would help 
them to hide from the royalists. Their troops remind 
one of the regiments of the English Puritans. Before a 
battle there would be a meeting for prayer, and preach- 
ing, and praise, at wfrch men would exhort officers. 
The Camisards marched to battle, lustily singing a hymn 
to the God of battles, and when the fighting was over, 
however great the carnage, on the very field uprose the 
song of praise and thanksgiving to Him who had given 
them the victory. 

Of all their leaders, the most remarkable was Jean 
Cavalier. In the very year in which the Edict of 

Nantes was revoked was born this leader of 
fevaiier ^e rebellion which that revocation caused. 

He was of humble parentage, his father 
being a shepherd ; and his mother had trained him in 
the Protestant doctrines. At the age of fifteen he had 



A.d. 1703. Rising iii the Ceve tines. 53 

to fly from the country, and took service with a baker at 
Geneva, then, as always, a hospitable place of refuge 
for the exile. Whilst in safety, however, he felt for his 
kinsfolk and neighbours who were suffering, and at 
length the "baker's boy" determined to return and to 
rouse resistance. He was only seventeen, when, on ac- 
count of his manifest fitness for the post, he was recog- 
nised as the General of the Camisards. Bravery was a 
virtue that he shared with all his men : he had other 
qualities of his own. The education which he had re- 
ceived could have been but little, and not calculated to 
fit him for his work. Yet he was a born general, and 
his manoeuvring on one occasion extorted from the 
ablest living marshal of France the praise that " it was 
worthy of Caesar." 

Three stories from his life in these two years will serve to 
illustrate his daring, his chivalry, and his uprightness : — 

1. On one occasion, as his men wanted powder, he 
rode, disguised as a merchant, into the town of Nismes 
to buy some. On entering he found all in His char _ 
confusion, for a rumour had just reached the acter. 

, . _ . . . i. Daring. 

town that the Camisards were preparing to 
attack it. The gates were immediately shut. But Cav- 
alier, having procured the powder that he wanted, and 
carrying it about his own person, went to the officer 
commanding a troop of cavalry that was going forth 
against the rebels, and asked permission to ride with it. 
The officer complimented the supposed merchant on 
his courage, but warned him at parting, lest he should 
meet with the dangerous Cavalier. 

2. Riding in disguise, as was his wont, he once acted 
as guide to a young royalist officer, conducting him to a 
place of safety and then revealing himself g Chivalryi 
to mm as they parted. 






54 The Age of Anne. a.d. 1703. 

3. Some banditti took advantage of the disturbed 

state of the country, and, pretending to be Camisards, 

plundered and murdered a lady. Imme- 

3. Upright- diately on hearing of it Cavalier set to work 

ness. J ° 

to find the men, and, having found them, 
hanged them without ceremony. 

Not hastily, nor without provocation, had the Cami- 
sards taken up arms. During all the seventeen years 
of Cavalier's life the persecution had been 
ragona es. ter jbi e# N or nac i it been limited to these 
years. The revocation of the Edict was not a sudden 
reversal of policy, but rather with its results the culmi- 
nation of one long-continued. It was known that 
cruelty and severity towards Protestants were a passport 
to the favour of the French king ; but a legal sanction 
was given by the formal revocation, made within a few 
days of the king's secret marriage with Madame de 
Maintenon, who, instigated by the Jesuits, urged him on 
to it. What the king had allowed before he ordered 
now ; all bands of humanity were withdrawn. A regi- 
ment of dragoons was considered the best body of mis- 
sionaries. If they could not convert, they could at least 
kill, and attention was paid to no complaint against 
these instruments of Holy Church. It was in the pro- 
vince of Languedoc, in the earlier wars against the Al- 
bigenses, that when one asked how to distinguish the 
heretics from the true believers, the savage answer was 
made — " Kill all ! God will know his own." Peace- 
ful valleys were turned into scenes of slaughter; and 
the most cruel tortures, the wheel and the rack, as well 
as the stake, completed the work that the sabres of the 
dragoons had begun. 

It is hardly to be wondered at, though it is much to be 
deplored, that the Camisards, when at length they turned 



a.d. 1704. Rising in the Cevennes. 55 

upon their persecutors, retaliated with a 

fearful retribution. Cavalier himself was not 

cruel ; but many of the bands of Camisards under other 

leaders took terrible and cruel revenge, nor was he able 

to stop it. 

All the early attempts to put down the rebellion were 
by means of severity. There was a feeling of irritation, 
both amongst the local authorities and at 
the king's court, that so insignificant a body used to put 
of peasants - for the insurgents seem never reunion 6 
to have numbered 10,000 — should dare to 
resist the royal authority. More troops to catch the 
rebels, more tortures for them when caught, were the only 
cures that occurred to their minds. As yet the external 
war did not press very heavily upon France, and it was 
thought that the rebellion could soon be crushed. Thus 
for about two years the insurrection continued with va- 
rying success ; the insurgents making raids, the royalists 
sometimes intercepting them, but oftener failing. 

Meanwhile the Camisards, knowing about the war 
with the allies, made appeal to foreign Governments for 
assistance, and especially to England and 
Holland. With touching simplicity they de- foreign 
clared that they were not rebelling against Govem- 
their prince, but exercising a right of na- 
ture. "We arm ourselves but to resist force. We fol- 
low but the dictates of conscience. We are not to be 
frightened by numbers. We will meet them. Yet will 
we harm no persons if they do not harm us. But just 
reprisals will we ever make upon our persecutors, and 
in this we are sanctioned by the law and by the Word 
of God, and the practice of all nations." At first the 
foreign Governments turned a deaf ear to their appeals ; 
out it was evident that, if a force of the allies could effect 



56 The Age of Anne. ad, i 704. 

a junction with these insurgents, a great blow would be 
struck at the French power. At length, in 1704, a force 

of ships was sent, under the command of Sir 
fluent. Cloudeslcy Shovel, a gallant and famous 

English admiral, who had risen to that dig- 
nity from the position of a cabin-boy. When the fleet 
arrived in the Gulf of Lyons the appointed signals were 
made, which were to be answered from the shore. But 
correct information had not been brought to Cavalier, 
and, though he saw the signals, he did not understand 
them. The admiral had received strict orders to land 
no troops unless the signals were answered. He, there- 
fore, sailed away. 

The rebellion had now lasted for so long a time 
(upwards of two years) that Lewis determined to send 
., , , against the Camisards the first marshal of 

Marshal ° 

Viliars' France. He, probably, selected Villars on 

' emency - account of his military skill ; but the selec- 

tion was good for other reasons. Villars was no bigot, 
and seems from his first appointment to have resolved 
upon a policy of clemency. He entertained a great ad- 
miration for young Cavalier. He opened negotiations 
with him at once, and the result was that a treaty was 
made, by which freedom of conscience, and liberty of 
worship, except in fortified towns, were granted, together 
with a free pardon for all the insurgents who accepted 
the treaty, and immunity from taxes for a certain period, 
until the district should have recovered from the effects 
of the war. Some of the Camisards were very indignant 
with Cavalier for signing this treaty because the posses- 
sion of certain strongholds was not granted 
^Twar as a & uarantee f° r ' ts fulfilment. They still 

held out ; but by his acceptance of the ti eaty 
the rebellion was now very much diminished, and was 



a.d. 1704. Rising in the Cevennes. 57 

without great difficulty put down. The spirit of the 
treaty was not strictly observed, and a great many of the 
inhabitants of the Cevennes emigrated. The success 
of Lewis was in the spirit of the maxim — " Solitudinem 
faciunt, pacetn appellant." 

Cavalier himself took service with the English Govern- 
ment, by whom he was sent into Spain, At the head 
of a regiment of his fellow-exiles he was en- 
gaged in the famous battle of Almanza. Cavalier's 

b ° later life. 

The story is told how in that battle the Ca- 
misards caught sight of a regiment of their former per- 
secutors, and rushed upon them with the bayonet with 
a fury such as shocked even men accustomed to fierce 
battles. Of 700 Camisards only 300 survived, and Ca- 
valier himself, severely wounded, was left among the 
dead. He afterwards became a general in the English 
army, was Governor of Jersey, then of the Isle of Wight, 
and died an old man at Chelsea. 

As France had a weak point in the disaffection of the 
Huguenots, so the Empire was weak on its eastern side. 
From one opponent — the Turks — it had, per- 
haps, not much to fear ; for the Turks had trouble in 
suffered severely at the hands of Eugene in A** 1 "*- 
the last war, and were, moreover, obliged now to turn 
their eyes in another direction, towards the growing 
power of Russia. But in wars against the Empire the 
Turks had always found allies in Hungary and Transyl- 
vania The disaffection in these two provin- 
ces was due, partly to the pressure of taxa- un s a iy- 
lion, partly to differences in religion, but chiefly to that 
desire for separation from Austria which has so often 
shown itself in Hungary. The taxes were very heavy 
throughout all the Austrian dominions. The Protestants 
in Hungary had been persecuted by the Emperor, and 
F 



58 The Age of Anne. ad. 1704. 

this had led to the last Hungarian insurrection, when the 
Turks, instigated by the Hungarians, had invaded 
Austria and besieged Vienna. The desire for separa- 
tion was constant During the War of the Succession, 
the condition of Hungary might be compared to a fire 
that is composed of smouldering embers, ready at any 
moment to break into a flame. Here and there flames 
showed themselves when a turbulent noble headed an 
insurrection. But, as the Empire was on the winning 
side elsewhere, these rebellions never became formi- 
dable 



CHAPTER VII. 

BLENHEIM. 

In the spring of 1704 Lewis determined to make a great 
effort. He raised as many troops as he could, and sent 
different armies against different members 
France ?n °f tne Grand Alliance. But his chief attempt 

making the was to ^q against the Emperor. He deter- 

campaign. ° r 

mined to make a vigorous lunge at Vienna, 
the heart of the Empire, and to compel the Emperor to 
make peace under the walls of his own capital. To this 
object two things helped. Bavaria was Lewis's single 
ally ; and Bavaria could be used by the French as an 
advanced outpost, in an attack on the Austrian do- 
minions. Moreover, whilst the Austrians were thus ex- 
posed in front, they were also weakened in the rear by 
the revolt of the Hungarians. The Hungarians had 
been long in revolt, which had been sedulously fomented 
with French gold. They were at present quiet ; but it 
was hoped that the appearance of a French army before 



A.d. 1704. Blenheim. 59 

Vienna would be the signal for a general uprising of 
the Hungarians ; and Hungary lies dangerously near 
Vienna. Already a French army under Marshal Mar- 
sin was in Bavaria with the Elector ; to this others were 
to join themselves, and then the advance was to be 
made. 

Though this well-concerted plan was not divulged, 
Marlborough with the instinct of genius understood the 
meaning of the preparations, and determined 
to defeatthem. He communicated his design borough's 
to only one man, Prince Eugene, whom he pan ' 
promised to meet in Bavaria, that with their united 
armies they might face the invading French, and thus 
save the Empire and with it the Grand Alliance. Marl- 
borough used his influence in England both to have 
10,000 men added to the English army, and to have his 
instructions drawn up with some latitude. He turned 
the opposition of the States of Holland by marching with 
the allied army towards the Moselle, and only then re- 
vealing to the States his intention to march to Bavaria to 
help the Emperor — with the Dutch troops, if they gave 
the permission, but if not, without them. The States saw 
that it was too late to oppose, and not only gave the 
desired permission, but generously sent reinforcements 
and supplies. Across the Moselle, and across the Rhine, 
then up the valley of the Maine Marlborough marched ; 
the enemy, and even his own soldiers, only conjecturing 
the object of the enterprise. In the Duchy of Wurtem- 
burg he met Prince Eugene, and they spent 
three days together. It was the first time j* e J°^ ns 

they had seen each other; and now was laid 
the foundation of the lifelong and unclouded friendship 
which forms so noble a feature in the character of each. 

Here they were joined by Prince Lewis of Baden, a 



60 The Age of Anne. a.d 1704. 

German general of the old methodical school, who 
claimed precedence over the others. Marl- 
Lewis of borough proposed that he should devote 

himself to the task of watching the French 
frontier, and preventing the expected union of another 
French army with those already in Bavaria. But Prince 
Lewis declined, and Eugene had reluctantly to depart 
upon this duty, for which, however, it was manifest he 
was much better suited. Marlborough then acquiesced 
in an arrangement by which Prince Lewis and he should 
divide the command, taking it on alternate days. 

The first achievement of the allied army was the 

storming of the Schellenberg, a hill just above the town 

of Donauworth upon the Danube. The 

Storming of . . , . . , , , ,,. , 

Scheiien- Bavarians occupied it in force, and the allied 

troops, when they came up, were tired with a 
long march. But it was Marlborough's day, and he knew 
not what the prince would do upon the morrow. More- 
over, though the hill was strongly fortified, the intrench • 
ments were not quite completed. So Marlborough gave 
to his wearied troops the order to attack. Twice they 
charged up the hill, and twice they were repulsed. The 
third time they were reinforced by some German soldiers, 
and led by Prince Lewis himself, of whose personal 
courage there was no doubt, whatever might be the 
feeling as to his generalship. This time the Bavarians 
were routed. In their flight a new disaster fell upon 
them. They were hurrying across the Danube, over a 
long wooden bridge, and when some 2,000 had crossed, 
the weight of the fugitives broke the bridge, and many 
were hurled into the swift stream. 

The day after this engagement Marlborough heard 
that, in spite of the watchfulness of Prince Eugene, a 
considerable French army, under Marshal Tallard, 



a.d. 1704. Blenheitn. 61 

one of the most distinguished French Taliardj^ins 

1 ii ,11, Marsin. 

generals, and the same who had been 
ambassador to King William at the time of the 
Partition Treaty, had passed through the defiles of the 
Black Forest, and had effected a junction with the 
armies of Marshal Marsin and of the Elector of Bavaria. 
Eugene now joined the others, and it was decided that 
Ingolstadt should be attacked, a strong and a virgin 
fortress, and important because it commanded the Dan- 
ube. His colleagues were glad to find that the attempt 
upon Ingolstadt was regarded by Prince Lewis as worthy 
of his dignity ; and they were thus relieved from the 
presence of an undesirable colleague. 

Receiving information that the united French forces 
were at Hochstadt, the scene of their triumph of the 
previous year, Marlborough and Eugene 
advanced to meet them. On August 12, fo r XSe° nS 
the two generals, mounting the church 
tower in one of the villages on the road, saw the en- 
campments of the French army. It was at once deter- 
mined to give battle; and the men joyfully prepared for 
it. Some of the officers ventured to point out the dan- 
gers of their position to Marlborough; but he answered 
that a battle was necessary, and that he trusted in the 
bravery of his troops. The early part of that night 
Marlborough spent in prayer; he then received the 
Communion at the hands of his private chaplain, and, 
after a short rest, was again in council with Eugene. 
With the first streaks of dawn on the morning of August 
13, at three o'clock, the army was in motion. A haze 
covered the ground ; but at six they were visible to the 
French, and a cannonade commenced; to which the 
English artillery replied, whilst the troops on either side 
were deploying into line. 



62 



The Age of Anne. 



i 704. 



The village of Blindheim, or Blenheim, which has 
given its name to this famous battle, is situated on the 
north bank of the Danube. The river is 
ot the about one hundred yards broad, and its 

ground. stream is very swift; just before reaching 

the village the river makes a loop to the south. A short 
distance below the village the Danube is joined by a 
little brook, the Nebel. Almost parallel with the Danube, 
about three miles distant, is a low range of thickly- 



BATTLE 

Of 

BLENIIEIM 

13 th.Aug, 1704 



SCALES 

1000 20OO JM. Tat. , 



ana £ Trench under 
Trine, Maximilian Sc Marik '. 
TalUxr3 Si Martin 



\ as b Cavalry 
infantry 
m Artillery 




wooded hills : they are a continuation at a lower level 
of the Schellenberg, which at Donauworth (nine miles 
down the stream) almost overhangs the Danube. From 
these hills flows the Nebel, which is but a little stream : 
in some places a boy could jump across it, divided as it 
is into several branches. The country is well drained 
now; but then the land between the branches was little 
better than a swamp Two little hamlets are on this 
brook: the lower, Unterglau, is about a mile from Blen- 



a.d. 1704. Blenheim. 63 

heim ; Oberglau is higher up. They are perhaps three- 
quarters of a mile apart. On an arm of the stream on 
the slope of the hill is a larger village, Lutzingen, which 
is not however as big as Blenheim. 

When both armies were ready for the battle, the Nebel 
divided them. Marlborough's forces, which were chiefly 
English, were on the left of the allies, reaching down to 
the Danube. To Prince Eugene, with a more composite 
army, the right was assigned higher up the little brook. 
Tallard with the troops that he had brought 
opposed Marlborough. Maximilian, the ^armies' 
Elector of Bavaria, and Marshal Marsin 
were stationed opposite Eugene, the rear of the French 
left wing being in the village of Lutzingen. But Tallard, 
though he had a great reputation, was not an able gen- 
eral, and committed a fatal mistake in the disposition 
of his troops, arising probably from his confident belief 
that he was destined to have an easy victory. He 
stationed seventeen battalions of his best troops in the 
village of Blenheim, where their movements were ham- 
pered by want of space. They were too many for the 
defence of the village, and those not wanted for that 
purpose were useless for any other. Moreover, the 
centre of the French army, the line of communication 
with the other wing, was proportionately weakened. 
This weakening helped the victory of the allies: the 
crowding of the troops made that victory more complete. 

On account of the uneven nature of the ground Prince 
Eugene took some time to get his troops into position. 
Marlborough occupied the interval by or- 
dering prayers to be read at the head of wins*" 1 ' 
each regiment. Then with some of his 
principal officers he sat down to breakfast. At midday 
an aide-de-camp galloped up with the message that Eu- 



64 The Age of Anne. a.d. 1704. 

gene was ready. " Now, gentlemen, to your posts," said 
Marlborough cheerfully. There was no 

Allied left. dda ^ Qn the left of the Hne Engl j sh troops 

advanced to attack the village of Blenheim under the 
command of Lord Cutts, reputed to be the bravest 
officer in the English army, and so fearless under fire 
that he had received the nickname of "Salamander." 
But Blenheim was strongly defended. There was a 
strong barrier of palisades, and behind them a need- 
lessly large number of the best regiments of French in- 
fantry. The English troops were forced back twice, and 
then received orders to keep up firing, but not again to 
advance until a diversion had been made. 

Meanwhile, on the right, Eugene was attacking Mar- 
shal Marsin and the Elector. First he led his cavalry 
to the charge : the front line of the enemy 
ng u was broken, and a battery of six guns taken. 
But the second line stood firm, his cavalry recoiled ; and 
the battery was retaken. Eugene, no longer able to trust 
his cavalry, galloped off for his infantry, who were 
chiefly Prussian. It was the steadiness of these Prus- 
sian infantry that saved the battle on the right wing. 

In the centre Marlborough was superintending the 

passage of the Nebel by his cavalry ; but the passage 

was a matter of difficulty, because the 

Centre. . ,. . t- • 

ground was exceedingly swampy. Fascines 
were thrown in, and pontoons used where possible. 
Tallard undoubtedly made a great mistake in not at- 
tacking the cavalry during the crossing. He seems to 
have thought that when over they would fall an easy 
prey. It was not until the first line was formed that the 
French charged, but then without any marked result. 

To the right of the centre a considerable force of the 
allies had made an attack on the village of Oberglau. 



a.d. 1704. Blenheim. 65 

They had taken it, and were then attacked 
in turn, and driven from it by the Irish Bri- 
gade, a valiant regiment of Irish exiles in the service of 
France. The Irishmen rushed forward, and had broken 
the line of the allies, and almost severed the communi- 
cations with Eugene. Marlborough was told, and at 
once galloped up, and by his exertions restored the 
battle, driving back with his cavalry the Irish, who were 
disordered with their success, and posting infantry so as 
to enfilade them on their retreat. 

The afternoon was now far spent ; as yet all that 
could be said was that there had been an alternation of 
success, and that both sides were holding 
their ground. But the generalship and the charge 7 

exertion of Marlborough were about to be 
rewarded. At five o'clock the whole body of his cavalry 
had been brought across, and he ordered the advance. 
At the sound of the trumpet about 8,000 splendidly 
mounted horsemen moved up the gentle slope, at first 
slowly and then more and more quickly. Once the 
advance was checked, and they recoiled for about sixty 
paces. Then the signal to advance was sounded again, 
and at a magnificent pace the whole line charged. The 
French cavalry fired their carbines, wheeled and fled. 
"The bulk of our cavalry," said Tallard afterwards, in 
his official report, " did ill, I say it, very ill." Marlbo- 
rough had won. The French line was cut in two. 
Some infantry which had been brought up to support 
the horse were compelled to surrender. The cavalry 
were in full flight, part towards Hochstadt, part towards 
Blenheim. Marlborough pursued the latter, sending a 
Dutch general after the former. Marshal Tallard was 
caught before he could make his escape into Blenheim. 
Marlborough put him in his own carriage, and then 



65 The Age of An ne. a.d. 1704. 

Marl- hastily wrote in pencil a note to the duchess, 

borough's ■.■■,■,•■■,■> ^ 

report of which his aide-de-camp was to take at once 

with the news of the victory to England. 
It is still preserved, and runs thus :— 

"August 13, 1704. 
" I have not time to zay more, but to beg you will give 
my duty to the Queen, and let her know Her Army has 
had a glorious victory. Monsr. Tallard and two other 
Generals are in my coach, and I am following the rest. 
The bearer, my Aide-de-camp, Coll. Parke, will give 
Her an account of what has pass'd. I shall doe it in a 
day or two by another more att large. 

" Marlborough." 

The French battalions in Blenheim, meanwhile, were 

hemmed in between the English troops and the Danube. 

Some, and amongst them their commander, 

Th oi Fr u ench tried to swim the river, but it was too swift 

in Blenheim. 

and they were drowned. During the sum- 
mer evening, and after night came on, the English were 
firing into the thick masses in Blenheim. Every attempt 
to escape was stopped. At length it became manifest 
that nothing could be gained by further bloodshed. 
Great was the despair of the gallant French soldiers : 
one regiment burnt its colours. Then they surrendered. 
Eugene had made repeated attacks upon his oppo- 
nents. About the time of the great cavalry charge he 
advanced, and took the village of Lutzingen ; but there 
was no rout of the Bavarians and French opposed to 

him. The troops retreated in good order. 

Eugene s 

attack on Marlborough ascribed the ill success of 

Eugene to ill luck; "if his fortune had 

been equal to his merit," he said, "this day would have 



A . D . 1705. Lord Peterboi'ough. 6 7 

finished the war." As a compliment he determined to 
divide the prisoners, who amounted in all to about 
11,000, with Prince Eugene. 

There is a good deal of difference in accounts of the 
battle, especially as to the numbers of the combatants. 
It would seem from the best authorities that 
the allies had about 52,000, the French Numbers - 
about 60,000 men : and that of these the former lost 
11,000, the latter 40,000, in killed and prisoners. 

It is almost impossible to exaggerate the importance 
of this victory, which broke the power of Lewis XIV., 
and destroyed the prestige of the French arms. Marl- 
borough was received everywhere with delight- In Eng- 
land the joy was great. The royal manor of Woodstock 
was conferred on him and his heirs, and the 
Palace of Blenheim was commenced as a 
monument of a nation's gratitude. The Emperor made 
him a prince of the Empire, and bestowed on him the 
principality of Mindelsheim in Bavaria. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

LORD PETERBOROUGH. 

In 1705 the English Government determined to make a 
vigorous push in Spain. The command of the new 
expedition was given to Charles Mordaunt, 
Earl of Peterborough, one of the most re- J-ifeof Peter- 

. borough. 

markable soldiers of his time, and especially 
suited for the work now set before him. Born two 
years before the Restoration, he had served when a boy 
in the Mediterranean fleet. Changing his profession, as 



68 The Age of Anne. a. d. 1705. 

was then often done, he had been subsequently engaged 
in fighting in Africa. From his seat in the House of 
Lords he had opposed the will of James II. upon the 
Test Act. He found it advisable to take refuge in Hol- 
land, and was the first English nobleman who pressed 
upon William of Orange that he should stand forth as 
the deliverer of England. For the two years that pre- 
ceded the Revolution he was constantly with him ; and 
when the Revolution was accomplished he was rewarded 
with the title of Earl of Monmouth, and with the offices 
of Lord of the Bedchamber, and First Commissioner of 
the Treasury. Lord Monmouth, however, was not the 
man steadily to retain the king's favour : and during the 
reign he lost first his civil, and then all his offices, and 
was imprisoned in the Tower. His disgrace rested upon 
doubtful evidence, and he was soon released. In 1697 
he succeeded to his uncle's title as Earl of Peterborough ; 
but it was not until Queen Anne's reign that he again 
took part in public life. He had been offered and had 
refused the chief command of the forces in the West 
Indies. It is said that it was at Marlborough's sugges- 
tion that this new command in Spain was given to him. 
This outline of his life gives but a slight indication of 
his character. Its predominant feature was activity — 

invaluable where energy was wanted ; other- 
Character. wise . t tQok the form of restlessness< Ha d 

he any definite work to do there was no man so fertile 
in resources, none who would do it so quickly. But 
obstacles would fret him : he had not the patience of 
Marlborough. When unemployed, he would travel 
over Europe with astonishing rapidity. It was said that 
he was faster than any courier. He was not like ordinary 
men, and would have been better suited for the days of 
knight-errantry. He had all the virtues of chivalry. He 



a.d. 1705. Lord Peterborough. 69 

was very generous and devoted to the fair sex. He 
could inspire troops with enthusiasm ; none was his 
equal as a leader of irregulars. It must also be men- 
tioned that he had no mean opinion of himself, and that 
his open, free way of talking made him many enemies. 
A few lively lines by Dean Swift give swift's 

us a very vivid idea of Lord Peterbo- account 

' of him. 

rough : 

Mordanto fills the the trump of fame : 
The Christian worlds his deeds proclaim, 
And prints are crowded with his name. 

In journeys he outrides the post, 
Sits up till midnight with his host, 
Talks politics, and gives the toast : 

Knows every prince in Europe's face, 
Flies like a squib from place to place, 
And travels not, but runs a race. . . . 

A messenger comes all a-reek, 
Mordanto at Madrid to seek : 
He left the town above a week. 

Next day the post-boy winds his horn, 
And rides through Dover in the morn— 
Mordanto's landed from Leghorn. . . . 

So wonderful his expedition, 

When you have not the least suspicion 

He's with you like an apparition — 

A skeleton in outward figure, 

His meagre corpse, though full of vigour, 

Would halt behind him were it bigger. 

The commission which Peterborough received from 
the Home Government was purposely drawn with great 



*jo The Age of Anne. a.d. 1705. 

latitude, and was exactly calculated to suit 
borough's his peculiar genius. He had full command 

commission. over ^ arm ^ and & j^ CQntrol with S[j . 

Cloudesley Shovel over the navy when he was on board. 
It was pointed out to him that the provinces of Catalonia 
and Valencia were believed to be favourable to the 
cause of the Archduke Charles ; and various places 
along the coast of Spain, and even on the Mediter- 
ranean shore of France, were suggested to him as in- 
viting attack. The greatest stress was laid on Barcelona, 
a large commercial town on the sea-coast and the capital 
of Catalonia. 

The force amounted to about 5,000 men, two-thirds 
English and one-third Dutch. It was very badly pro- 
vided with stores, or with money to pur- 
Progress of * l 
the expe- chase them. Peterborough s first act on 

landing at Lisbon, to which he first sailed, 
was on his own responsibility to remedy the want of 
stores. Here, also, two regiments of dragoons were 
spared by the Earl of Galway to add to the force. The 
Archduke Charles, who had been with Gal way's army 
in Portugal, now joined himself to Peterborough, and 
when the force stopped a little later at Gibraltar, the 
Prince of Hesse Darmstadt joined likewise. He had 
been popular as governor of Catalonia in the last reign, 
and it was thought that his presence might win over 
some of the natives. 

The fleet next cast anchor off Valencia, where Peter- 
borough proposed a bold scheme, a foretaste of the ro- 
mantic adventures which have made his ex- 
P ^ ncia - pedition memorable. He proposed to march 

boro gh's at once upon Madrid, which was only 150 

miles distant : the road lay through the 
province of Valencia, which was mainly favourable. 



a.d. 1705. Lord Peterborough. 71 

There was no army at Madrid ; and if the French army 
that was now facing Galway, on the frontier of Portugal, 
should turn to Madrid, to expel the bold invaders, it 
would be exposed to attack upon two sides at once. 
If the archduke had not been on board the fleet, Peter- 
borough, having full powers, would doubtless have car- 
ried out his plan with a result which, from later expe- 
rience, it is quite possible to guess. But, in a war waged 
to place the archduke upon the" throne of Spain, it was 
not possible to act contrary to his wishes. He opposed 
the plan very strongly when it was laid before him ; and 
it was rejected altogether by a council of war. It was 
therefore determined to proceed to Barcelona. 

But Barcelona was one of the best fortified and 
strongest cities in Spain. It was absurd that so small a 
force should think of laying formal siege 

. . , , Barcelona. 

to it : it was not a quarter large enough even 
for one line. The garrison was about as numerous as 
the assailants. The would-be king and the Prince of 
Hesse were very anxious that an attempt should be 
made: they especially maintained that the inhabitants of 
the surrounding country would join. The troops and 
artillery were landed: some 1,500 Miquelets, as the 
picturesquely-armed peasants of the province were 
called, came to the camp. During three weeks there were 
disputes in the force. The archduke and the Prince of 
Hesse were taunting Peterborough, and insisting upon 
an attack. The officers of the navy joined them in re- 
garding it as feasible. The officers of the army declared 
that it was hopeless, the general of the Dutch contingent 
going so far as to refuse to lead his men to certain de- 
struction. Peterborough was distracted between them, 
but he at length gave way to the latter. The heavy guns 
were again embarked. A public entertainment was 



7 2 The Age of Anne. a.d. 1705. 

given in Barcelona in honour of the departure of the 
force. Next morning, however, the English flag was 
waving from the fort that commanded the city. 

The town of Barcelona lies between the sea and this 

strong fort or citadel, which is called Monjuich. It is 

situated on the last of a ranw of hills, and 

Monjuich. . ° ' » 

as it really commanded Barcelona, it had 
been fortified with especial care. It was believed to be 
impregnable : on this account the soldiers of the gar- 
rison were negligent. Lord Peterborough, expecting 
this, determined to attempt a sudden assault. 

To reach Monjuich from the English camp without 
giving an alarm it was necessary to march about nine 
miles. The night was dark ; the force se- 
fiSjjEfchf leCted consisted of 1.200 foot and 200 horse. 
Peterborough, as he was moving out of the 
camp, stopped at the quarters of the Prince of Hesse, 
inviting him to accompany them to "see whether they 
deserved the bad character which he had so liberally 
given them." Much astonished, he came at once. Two 
hours before dawn the troops arrived beneath Monjuich, 
but Peterborough did not intend a night attack. He ex- 
plained to his men the nature of the fortifications. 
There was an inner circle of works ; round these there was 
a ditch. The English were to receive the enemy's fire, 
and then jump into this ditch : the enemy would come 
forward to attack them, and they were then to advance, 
driving the enemy back, and following them closely into 
the inner fortifications. The little force was divided into 
three columns ; Peterborough, with the prince, attacking 
the most dangerous part, a bastion on the Barcelona 
side. As he had said, so it happened. All except the 
innermost fort fell into Peterborough's hands. 

The Prince of Hesse there lost his life. A reinforce- 



A.d. 1705. Lord Peterborough. 73 

ment of dragoons was sent from Barcelona to Monjuich. 
As they entered they were received with cheers. The 
prince thought the cheering meant that the place had 
surrendered, and, hastening to secure it, was shot just 
as he discovered his mistake. An alarm arose that a 
large force was coming from Barcelona to the relief of 
Monjuich. Peterborough went to reconnoitre. In his 
absence a panic seized upon the troops. Some of the 
soldiers suggested to the officer who was left in com- 
mand that they should retreat, and he at once adopted the 
suggestion. Captain Carleton, who has written an ac- 
count of the campaign, tells us how he himself heard this, 
and spurred his horse after Peterborough, who without a 
word galloped back, shouted to the men that they were 
marching in a wrong direction, restored confidence by 
the magic of his presence, and promptly recovered the 
position which had been so rashly endangered. 

The guns were landed again, and in less than three 
days the whole of the fortress of Monjuich was in the 
hands of the English. Great enthusiasm 

, ■ Capture of 

was now aroused, when Peterborough at Barcebna. 
once turned to the siege of the town of Gto er23 ' 

Barcelona. The sailors wanted to serve in the batteries 
on shore : the soldiers vied with them in their efforts. 
Very soon the town capitulated without there being the 
necessity for an assault. The Catalans from the neigh- 
borhood were so angry that the town had held out 
against the cause which they espoused that the English 
general had great difficulty in preserving order, and in 
preventing terrible violence and plunder. 

The results of this brilliant achievement were very 
important. Almost all Catalonia declared „ „ . . 

1 Catalonia 

for the Archduke Charles. Soldiers of for the 
Philip's army deserted in numbers: new re- 
G 



74 The Age of Anne. a.i>. 1705. 

cruits came in. The belief that Catalonia was still disaf- 
fected to the general Government of Spain, and inclined 
to the House of Austria, because Castile was in favour 
of the French prince, was fully justified. The example 
was infectious. The town of Valencia, and the greater 
part of the province of that name, soon sub- 

and Valencia. . , -,-. t , ' , 

mitted. Peterborough was very anxious 
to follow up these successes, and to continue the vigo- 
rous push which, in accordance with his instructions, he 
had been making. Had he been properly supported, it 
is difficult to conjecture what would have stopped his 
success. But unfortunately those with him, whether 
Dutch generals or English officers, or the Archduke 
Charles himself, had not his energy. They determined 
upon letting the navy retire to Lisbon, and sending the 
army into winter quarters in the different towns which 
had espoused their side. These contingents were insuf- 
ficient to hold the towns, and a considerable portion of 
the army remained useless in Barcelona. 

On the other hand, the Spanish Government was not 
prepared to remain idle. They sent 7,000 men, under 
one of their best generals, to recover San 
Mateo, a town important, not for its size, but 
for its situation on a pass between Catalonia and Va- 
lencia, In this place an English colonel had been 
stationed with a force of 500 irregulars. Peterborough 
marched to its relief with only 1,200 men, and raised the 
siege. He was always well served by spies ; and, by 
arranging that one should be captured with false de- 
spatches, he created in the mind of the Spanish general 
the impression that the relieving army was much larger 
than his own. He precipitately retreated towards Va- 
lencia ; but Peterborough was not content with relieving 
the town. With his small force, and keeping up the 



a.d. i7°5* L^rd Peterborough. 75 

same impression, although it was the depth of winter, 
and in a mountainous country, he pursued the retreating 
army. 

He had not followed it for more than six leagues, 
when he received doleful news from Barcelona, that no 
less than three armies were being concen- 
trated upon the town, and all the troops Pursuit of 
were required that King Charles could mus- 
ter. After some hesitation Lord Peterborough sent his 
infantry to the sea-port of Vinarez, that they might 
thence be conveyed to Barcelona. He determined, 
with his 200 horsemen, to continue the pursuit. By very 
rapid movements, his men appearing now on the right, 
now on the left flank of the enemy, and concealing by 
various devices his inferiority of numbers, he followed 
the strong Spanish army. The town of Nules, strongly 
attached to the cause of King Philip, he took in the 
following manner. He rode up to the gate and asked 
for a magistrate or priest. A priest came. Peterborough 
told him that he gave them only six minutes in which 
to surrender ; else he would, when his artillery came up, 
assault and give no quarter. They surrendered, but he 
had no artillery. 

He heard that the Spaniards had determined on be- 
sieging the town of Valencia, and he felt it was abso- 
lutely necessary to relieve it. He sent, £x 
therefore, quickly for his own infantry from Peter- 
Vinarez, and for reinforcements from Cata- 
lonia. Wanting cavalry, he converted 600 infantry into 
horse soldiers. A regiment of foot was being reviewed. 
Peterborough said to the officers, " How would you like 
your men to be mounted on good horses ?" He led 
them on a little further. There were 600 horses ready sad- 
dled and bridled, which the general had bought at Nules. 



76 The Age of Anne. a. d. 1705. 

At Murviedro the road to Valencia was stopped by a 
force under an Irish officer in the Spanish service. " He 
was a kinsman of Peterborough, who took advantage of 
the fact to make proposals to him that he should desert, 
and when he firmly refused, Peterborough, by means of 
feigned deserters, spread a report of his treason. The 
result was, that in the general mistrust Peterborough 
passed him, and on February 4 entered Valencia. But 
not yet did he rest there. He heard that a body of 
4,000 men was marching to reinforce the Spanish army. 
At dead of night he set out with one-fourth the number, 
crossed the river Xucar, attacked and dispersed the 
force, and returned to Valencia with 600 prisoners. 
There was no further danger for Valencia. For the 
remainder of the winter Peterborough and his men en- 
joyed their well-earned repose. 



CHAPTER IX. 

THE YEAR OF VICTORY, I706. 

Section J. — Ramillies. 

The year 1706 was the most important in the whole war 

to the cause of the allies, for in that year they won 

brilliant successes in three different quar- 

buccess x m 

in three ters. In Spain there was at the same time 

the triumphant raising of the siege of Bar- 
celona by Lord Peterborough, and the march of Lord 
Galway to Madrid. In the Netherlands the easily-won 
victory of Ramillies led to the recovery of the whole 
country from the French. In Italy Eugene's brilliant 
victory brought about the raising of the siege of Turin, 



a.d. 1706. The Year of Victory. 77 

and was followed by the overthrow of the French cause 
throughout the whole of not only Savoy but Italy. 

Marlborough, knowing the critical state of affairs in 
Italy, had wished to be allowed to repeat the cam- 
paign of Blenheim, and, marching his army 
quickly into Italy, to join with Eugene in Marlborough 
raising the siege of Turin ; but his army was 
composed of contingents from different allies, whose 
leave he had to ask to take them, and this was refused 
by many of the different Governments. The Dutch were 
especially afraid that their border would again be left 
unprotected. Acquiescing in the reversal of his policy, 
Marlborough set off to meet the enemy "with a heavy 
heart." Yet he was marching to one of his most bril- 
liant victories. 

He bad under him in the Netherlands a force of about 
60,000 men, most of whom were English and Dutch. 
Opposed to him was Marshal Villeroy, with 
a French army of about the same size as his 
own. With him was the Elector of Bavaria, ready to 
fulfil his own saying, when offered terms by the allies, 
that " since the wine was abroach he was ready to drink 
it to the lees." The French general seems to have 
known that the allies were late in making preparations, 
and to have thought that by a speedy advance he might 
find Marlborough with his English troops alone, and 
unprepared. He learnt his mistake when they met on 
the battle-field of Ramillies. 

The village which has given its name to this battle 
stands in the middle of a high plain in Brabant. Three 
rivers rise close by it. The Little Gheet and 
the Great Gheet, mere brooks, flow north- e gro ' 

wards, uniting at some leagues' distance, and then flow- 
ing into a tributary of the Scheldt. They are separated 



73 



The Age of Anne. 



a.d. 1706. 



by a narrow belt of land, at first not more than a mile 
in breadth, but expanding as they flow apart. The 
Mehaigne to the south of the field flows eastward, then 
some miles further on turns south and joins the Meuse. 
The French right wing rested on the Mehaigne at the 
village of Tavieres; their line extended in a large arc, 
the centre being strongly stationed in the village of 
Ramillies and at Offuz, which lies a little to its left ; the 
left of the whole line was at the village of Anderkirk on 



lEnyluh, JHitch 
(J- DanvshMliet 

*- V- 1=1 French 




Z&P Military Taces 

1000 2000 3000 1000 



the Little Gheet. Marlborough took advantage of this 
arrangement. It is manifest that if two armies face each 
other, one in a concave and the other in a convex order, 
the latter has this advantage, that troops can be more 
quickly moved from one flank to the other. 

Behind the French line, between the right and centre 
where the cavalry were stationed, stands an old barrow 
called the Tomb of Ottomond. Marlborough saw that 
this commanded the field, and made it his object to 



a.d. 1706. The Year of Victory. 79 

break through the line and secure it. To __ , 
a Marl- 

conceal his design he made a vehement borough's 

attack on the French left, to strengthen pan ' 

which Villeroy sent his reserve and all the soldiers that 

he could spare. Marlborough then, in such a way that 

they were not missed, detached a large body of troops, 

who marched, hidden by a slightly-rising ground, to 

reinforce his own left. 

But before the attempt to break through the line was 

carried out, the attack on Anderkirk was followed by 

assaults on the villages of Ramillies and 

Tavieres. The latter was quickly carried. RamfiHes 

The real crisis of the battle was the cavalry Ma y 2 3> 

J A. D. 1706. 

fight that followed. The Dutch general 
charged, and the first line of the French was driven 
back. But the second line consisted of the finest troops 
of France — the Maison du Roi — the French Household 
Brigade, the regiment which had won Steinkirk, and 
which consisted now, as then, of the young nobles, fa- 
mous for their valour, and careless of their lives. The 
Dutch were driven back. Marlborough ordered up 
every available sabre, and himself galloped to the front. 
Just as he was coming forward, he was recognised by 
some of the French dragoons who nearly made him 
prisoner. Sword in hand he fought himself free, and 
tried to make his horse leap a ditch, but he fell to the 
ground. An aide-de-camp brought him another horse, 
and as a colonel held the stirrup, a cannon ball took off 
his head. Saved as it were by miracle, Marlborough 
headed the charge. The famous French regiment was 
overpowered by numbers, the village of Ramillies was 
taken, and immediately afterwards the Tomb of Otto- 
mond. The French line was thus cut in two. 

The French still held Anderkirk, the village on their 



8o The Age of Anne. a.d. 1706. 

left, and the advance of the allies was impeded by the 

confusion which reigned all over the field. 

End of the Marlborough halted his troops to re-form 

battle. ° r 

their lines, and the French bravely at- 
tempted to face them. When Marlborough once more 
ordered the advance to be sounded, a panic seized the 
French, and they fled. The battle had lasted three 
hours. Till late into the night the flying French were 
pursued by the English cavalry. All their artillery, 
except six guns, fell into the hands of the allies. 
The French lost in killed, wounded, and prisoners, 
15,000 men; the allies less than a quarter of that 
number. 

The battle of Ramillies was by no means so valiantly 
contested as that of Blenheim. Its results, however, 
were quite as important. Blenheim saved 
Rammiesf ^ e Empire ; Ramillies conquered the Neth- 
erlands. Marshal Villeroy and the Elector 
of Bavaria halted in Louvain ; but they decided that 
they could not hold it, and the town capitulated next 
morning. Brussels, the capital of Brabant, 
into^hands opened its gates to the conquerors, and pro- 
of Marl- claimed the Archduke Charles as its sover- 

borough. . . . 

eign. Marlborough, in his name, guaran- 
teed the liberties of the province, as the archduke him- 
self had done in Catalonia. Moreover, 
when the Dutch wished to levy a contribu- 
tion on the inhabitants of Brabant towards the expenses 
of the war, and the English Government were inclined 
to adopt the policy, Marlborough protested so warmly, 
that the scheme was not carried out. Other towns 
hastened to follow the example of Brussels. The for- 
tresses occupied by French troops alone 

Antwerp. ■,■•■, ■»,,, ,/- -, ■, 

held out. Marlborough first proceeded to 



A.D. 1706. The Year of Victory. 81 

Antwerp, which was expected to cause him trouble ; but 
a quarrel had begun between the French soldiers and the 
Walloons, who jointly formed the garrison. The latter 
declared for the allies, and this strong fortress was cap- 
tured without a blow. Ghent and Bruges, the two chief 
cities of Flanders, opened their gates. Then Marl- 
borough advanced upon Ostend, and began the siege 
with such vigour that it surrendered in nine days. 
Menin is a strong fortress on the Lys, which 
now serves as a boundary between France 
and Belgium, for Vauban, the great French engineer, 
had fortified it with all his art. Lewis had by this time 
sent his bravest marshal, Vendome, to restore the for- 
tunes of France on its northern frontier. He approached 
Marlborough's army as if with the intention of raising 
the siege of Menin, but the memory of Ramillies was 
too much for the courage of his soldiers. " Everyone 
here," he reports to Lewis, " is ready to doff his hat, if 
one even mentions the name of Marlborough." It took 
twenty-three days before Menin fell. Dendermonde, 
which lay to his rear, was Marlborough's real object. It 
was so situated on the banks of the Scheldt, 
that bv letting out the waters the governor Dender- 

J ° ° monde. 

could prevent an enemy's approach. " They 
must have an army of ducks," Lewis had said, " to take 
Dendermonde." It surrendered, however, to Marl- 
borough. In his despatch he gives the reason — " That 
place could never have been taken but by the hand of 
God, which gave us seven weeks without rain. The 
rain began the day after we had taken possession, and 
continued without intermission." Ath surrendered next, 
after a siege of twelve days, and Marlborough would 
also have attempted the strong fortress of Mons if the 
Dutch had been more prompt with supplies. Thus ended 



82 The Age of Anne. a.d. 1706. 

the brilliant campaign of 1706, all the results of which 
may be traced to the victory of Ramillies. 

The Emperor and King Charles wished to make 
Marlborough governor of the country which he had thus 
conquered. It was a post of importance, 
borough pro and of considerable emolument ; the Eng- 
goverirfrof nsn Government would have gladly seen 
Netherlands. him accept ft. But the Dutch, and even 
his friends amongst them, made so strong an opposition 
that the plan was allowed to drop. 



Section II. — Turin. 

At the beginning of the year 1706 the cause of the 

allies in Italy looked very gloomy. It seemed that 

nothing could prevent the capture of Turin, 

The allied , , , , „ , • r 

cause in that then they must be wholly driven out of 

Italy, and that the Duke of Savoy would 
be compelled to quit the Grand Alliance, just as he had 
formerly quitted it before the Peace of Ryswick. Great 
efforts were therefore made to send strong support. 
Marlborough even went to Vienna to obtain supplies and 
reinforcements for Eugene, and his representations were 
successful, so that Eugene was able to take the field 
with a larger and better equipped army than before. 
Just before his arrival in Italy the imperialists had been 
defeated by Vendome at Calcinato. The story ran that, 
to lull the vigilance of the opposing general, Vendome 
had pretended to be ill, and suddenly appearing well, 
and at the head of his army, had routed the imperial- 
ists. Eugene's first work was to reorganise the defeated 
troops. 

Meanwhile the French began the siege of Turin. It 
was commenced with true French politeness. The 



a.d. 1706. The Year of Victory. 83 

French general, by order of the king, sent 
to offer safe passports for the princesses of S' e2: . e of 

Savoy, and to say that, if the duke would 
point out his head-quarters, no bombs should be thrown 
there. The duke sent answer that his daughters were 
already safe, and that the French might throw their 
bombs where they thought proper. Having made all 
preparations for resisting the siege, the duke left his cap- 
ital, thinking that the presence of a court might hinder 
the defence, which he entrusted to Daun, the father of 
one who was afterwards a famous Austrian general in 
the Seven Years' War. Messages were sent to inform 
Eugene how critical was the state of Turin. He marched 
quickly from Tyrol to its relief. Fortunately for the cause 
of the allies the battle of Ramillies had just been won, 
and Lewis recalled Marshal Vendome from Italy, as the 
only French general who could face the victorious 
Marlborough. In the place of Vendome, whom he so 
highly valued, he sent his Royal Highness the Duke of 
Orleans, and, as the fashion was, a general to guide him, 
Marshal Marsin, who had commanded part of the army 
opposed to Eugene at Blenheim. The Duke of Orleans 
was merely ornamental. Marsin's reputation did not 
stand high. It was said that he had been made a 
marshal only because Madame de Maintenon held a 
high opinion of his religious character. 

Eugene's quick march took him across three rivers, 
the Po, the largest, giving him most trouble. By a wide 
circuit to the south he reached the Pass of 
Stradella, in a spur of the Apennines, run- 
ning towards the Po. This pass was very important, 
because it formed the communication between the 
French and their allies in the peninsula. This occu- 
pation of the pass and the victory which followed it have 



84 The Age of Anne. a.d. 1706. 

been compared to " a stab in the jugular artery, or a 
blow on the sprinal marrow." Marching from Stradella 
on Turin, Eugene effected a junction with the Duke of 
Savoy. 

After surveying the ground from the heights of 

Superga, whence the city and the whole 

State of surrounding country can be seen, the two 

the siege. ° J ' 

generals determined on an attack. News 
reached them that the siege, which had now lasted for 
more than three months, had reached such a point that 
the besiegers had twice forced their way within the forti- 
fications, and twice had been repulsed ; and that the de- 
fenders had fired away their last barrel of powder. The 
allies were eager for battle. When Eugene's house 
steward asked him where he would dine the next even- 
ing, " at Turin, at Turin," he enthusiastically answered. 
The French were stronger than the allies in numbers, 
and much stronger in position. They were behind in- 

trenchments, to the attack of which the allies 
Turin ° na cl to march across a plain. But bravery 

ad* Voo" an( * g enera l sn ip carried the day ; the French 

were signally routed. The duke, accom- 
panied by Eugene, entered his delivered capital amid 
the ringing of bells and every sign of enthusiasm. Eu- 
gene dined that night in Turin. 

This was the third victory which secured to the allies 
important results, indeed hardly less important than 

Blenheim and Ramillies. The first of these 
Turin. was the effect on the minds of the French. 

French They were taught that Marlborough was not 

troops are ^ e on ] y general who could rout them. " I 

demoralised. J ° 

am sorry to tell you," wrote one of their own 
officers, "that I no longer know our men — they are so 
changed. I will not give you a detail of the disorder in 



a.d. 1706. The Year of Victory. 85 

which they fought at Turin, and of the confusion which 
prevailed among us, when we turned our backs on an 
army that, even after the battle, was much inferior to 
ours. I will draw a curtain over this disagreeable scene ; 
but I cannot help telling you that our troops hardly think 
themselves safe here, divided as they are by the Alps 
from the enemy." The same feeling was thus prevailing 
in the French army of the South as in that of the North, 
and the army of the South also was compelled to with- 
draw within the borders of France. The 
second consequence was that Savoy was French 
now secured to the cause of the Grand Al- driven out of 

Jriedmont. 

liance. The French evacuated all Piedmont 

except the fortresses. These they lost one by one — ■ 

Milan last. The Convention of Milan (March 13, 1707) 

secured North Italy for the allies. But the 

kingdom of Naples also was thus cut off makeTpeace 

from France by land, whilst the English |P art frona 

fleets prevented troops being sent by sea. 

Naples made a separate peace with the imperialists, and 

was never again united to the monarchy of Spain. 

Section III.— Barcelona and Madrid. 

The successes of the Earl of Peterborough in Spain, and 
the acceptance of King Charles in so large a portion of 
that country, produced greater vigour on the The French 
French side than had yet been shown. besiege 

J Barcelona. 

Philip himself commanded an army whose 
object was to recover Barcelona. Lewis sent a fleet 
under his natural son, the Count of Toulouse, together 
with a skilled French marshal, to help the inexperienced 
Philip. Charles's ministers implored him to escape; 
but he bravely determined to remain in Barcelona, 
which was soon blockaded by land and sea. Tho 



86 The Age of Anne. a.i>. 1706. 

breaches in the fortress of Monjuich, which Peterborough 
had taken so quickly, had not been properly repaired; 
yet it held out for twenty-three days. Meanwhile Peter- 
borough with his small forces, chiefly consisting of ir- 
regular troops, tried to raise the siege, but in vain. The 
English fleet during Peterborough's romantic enterprise 
had returned to England. It was now back in the 
Mediterranean, and a new commission had been sent to 
Peterborough, which gave him the command of the fleet 
when he was on board ship. At great risk he put out 
to sea in a small boat ; on the first night no ship of the 
fleet was to be seen ; on the second night he was more 
successful. He did not wish the French 
£lkes°X h admiral to see the whole fleet, but rather 
raise the desired to entice him to battle with a part, 

siege. l 

and then to bring up the rest as a reserve. 
But the Count of Toulouse was well informed, and sailed 
back from Barcelona to Toulon. The land forces soon 
followed the navy, and the siege was raised. 

The success upon the east of Spain set in motion 
the army under the Earl of Galway on the west. Ber- 
wick, who was opposing it, had forces too small to resist 
the advance, and fell back on the north. Philip, who was 
in the north, had hastened to Madrid ; but 
Entrance he was obliged immediately to quit it. He 

into Madrid. ° ' . 

was attended on his retreat by his nobles, 
more faithful to him on account of his adversity. Shortly 
after Philip had left Madrid, Galway with his English 
and Portuguese troops entered the Spanish capital. 

This may be considered the highest point of the suc- 
cess of the allies. On May 11, the day on which the 
„ u . . siege of Barcelona was raised, a total eclipse 

The point of ° ' * 

greatest sue- of the sun took place. It was eagerly re- 
tho war. marked that the sun in his glory had been 



a.d. 1706. J lie Year of Victory. 87 

the favourite device of Lewis XIV. In the middle 
of this year 1706, though victory in Savoy was yet 
in the future, the allies had been successful in the 
Netherlands, and both upon the east and west of Spain. 
They were fighting to keep down the power of Lewis, 
especially to prevent him from attacking Holland, and 
to place the Archduke Charles upon the throne of Spain. 
All the strongholds of the Netherlands, were now in 
their hands, and the capital of the Spanish monarchy 
was taken by Galway, who anxiously expected Charles 
to join him in Madrid. But our account of the year as 
a year of victory must end here. 

When the cause of Philip seemed to have reached its 
lowest stage, a peculiar feature in the character of the 
Spanish people, especially in that of the 
Castilians, was shown. They had not seemed loyalty for 
to care for King Philip in his prosperity : ■ ip ' 

he had excited no enthusiasm amongst them — they had 
obstructed his government by their apathy, if by nothing 
else. Now that he was in exile they became enthusiastic 
in his cause. Never was there such loyalty. One story 
may serve as an illustration. A Castilian priest brought 
him 120 pistoles from his small village, which had only 
120 houses — " My flock are ashamed," said the good 
priest with tears in his eyes, "that they are not able to 
send a larger sum ; but they entreat your Majesty to be- 
lieve that in the same purse are one hundred and twenty 
hearts faithful even to death." 

Against this feeling it was useless for the allies to con- 
tend. It seems only wonderful that all did not recognise, 
as Peterborough expressly did, that Charles would never 
be king in Castile ; for Spain was now divided into par- 
ties almost as it had once been into kingdoms, and the 
inhabitants would have gladly acquiesced in a division 



88 The Age of Anne. a.d. 1706. 

which would have given Castile to Philip and Aragon to 
Charles. It was an Englishman, General Stanhope, 
who protested that this would reduce Spain to nought in 
the councils of Europe. 

Although Madrid was thus held for him, King Charles 
could not be persuaded to enter. He pleaded that he 

must enter in state, and that his carriage 

was not ready. " Our William the third," 
reasoned General Stanhope, " entered London in a hack- 
ney coach with a cloak bag behind it, and was made 
king not many weeks after." Between the hostility of 
the natives and the lukewarmness or cowardice of the 
prince, it was impossible to hold Madrid. As Charles 
would not come to Madrid, Galway, no longer able to 

obtain supplies, left Madrid to join the arch- 
(,aUay n a nd duke and the forces under Peterborough, 
borough at Charles marched from Saragossa, Peter- 
Guada- borough from Valencia : they joined each 

other, and the next day effected a junction 
with Galway at Guadalaxara. We are told how each 
army saw with astonishment the smallness of the other. 
As they left Madrid, Berwick's troops entered ; and 
as the inhabitants were in favour of his cause, his army 
was received with enthusiasm. It grew day by day in 
numbers, whilst the forces of the allies kept wasting. 
The crisis was past. Never again had the cause of 
Charles such a chance in Spain as on the day when 
Galway entered Madrid. 

Moreover a new difficulty beset the allies. Not only 
were their troops few, but their generals were many. 

Rather than serve under Galway, his senior 
general? ° f * offi cer, Peterborough, determined to go. A 

clause in his instructions had ordered him 
to proceed, if he had an opportunity, to the assistance 



a.d. 1707. The Year of Disaster. 89 

of the Duke of Savoy. He set off therefore for Italy, 
and was chagrined to find that all the officers were 
glad at his departure. "With many qualities that might 
inspire those under him, Peterborough had something 
that made him unpopular — a most sarcastic and biting 
tongue, from which even the prince was not safe. 

When Peterborough was gone, however, the cause of 
the allies did not prosper any better. Before the ad- 
vancing troops of Berwick they retreated to Valencia, 
where they wintered. 



CHAPTER X. 

THE YEAR OF DISASTER — 1707. 

The year 1707 was a strange contrast to that which 
preceded it. In almost every quarter it was a year of 
inaction or of disaster to the cause of the 
Grand Alliance. It was strange that the 
campaign in Flanders which followed that of Ramillies 
was so unfruitful in successes. The campaign of Turin 
alone seemed to carry forward its results into the fol- 
lowing year ; but the selfishness with which the Em- 
peror acted made the success in Italy almost more hurt- 
ful than useful to the general cause. In Spain, divided 
counsels had, even in the latter part of the previous 
year, produced their natural fruit in failure and retreat. 
They were in this year to be crowned with the greatest 
defeat which the allies suffered during the war. In 
other parts of Europe, also, fortune seemed to have de- 
serted their cause. 

When Marlborough assumed the command of the 
H 



po The Age of Anne. a.d. 1707. 

army in Flanders, he expected such success as would 

lead directly to a speedy termination of the 

borough and war. He had indeed many other things to 

res " do than merely to command his own army. 
The Home Government looked to him constantly for 
advice. It was his work to keep the different members 
of the Grand Alliance true to the cause, and zealous. 
In the spring of this year the King of Sweden was 
causing anxiety to the Emperor. King Charles XII., 
whose career is described in another part of this volume, 
was at Dresden with an army not inconsiderable in 
numbers, but still more formidable from the bravery and 
reputation of the soldiers. French envoys paid him 
frequent visits, for Lewis felt that if he could win Charles 
to his side, he might yet triumph in the war, as the Em- 
peror would be paralysed. Marlborough therefore made 
a hasty journey to the Court of Charles, to try whether 
his influence could counteract that of these French en- 
voys. On the way he stopped for forty-eight hours with 
the Elector of Hanover, who advised him to try the 
effect of the promise of pensions to the chief ministers 
of King Charles, and to pay the first year in advance. 
At Dresden Marlborough did not neglect this advice, 
but perhaps he relied more on his own power of flattery, 
for this was his first speech to the king : 

"I present to your Majesty a letter, not from the 
chancery, but from the heart of the queen, my mistress, 
and written with her own hand. Had not her sex pre- 
vented it, she would have crossed the sea to see a prince 
admired by the whole universe. I am in this particular 
more happy than the queen, and I wish I could serve 
some campaigns under so great a general as your Ma- 
jesty, that I might learn what I yet want to know in the 
art of war." 



a.d. 1707. The Year of Disaster. 91 

Charles was naturally pleased, and Marlborough was 
soon convinced that the Grand Alliance had no reason 
to fear danger in that quarter, as Charles was meditating 
a very different design. Charles was unmoved when 
Marlborough spoke of Lewis, but his eyes flashed fire 
when he spoke of the Czar. 

On Marlborough's return to Flanders he was anxious 
to begin active operations against the French; but he 
was thwarted by the Dutch deputies, who 
seemed to have received orders to that ef- Marlborough 

in t landers. 

feet from their own Government. The Dutch 
wanted a cession of territory, in order to secure their 
border the better from attack ; but as this cession would 
have to be made at the expense of the Emperor, they 
anticipated opposition from him, and determined to 
thwart the progress of the common cause until they 
could make terms for themselves. Such instructions, 
combined with the usual phlegmatic slowness of the 
Dutch deputies, fettered Marlborough's action. The 
other allies also were backward in sending their con- 
tingents. Month after month passed, and the whole 
summer slipped away without anything being done. 

In the month of March was fought in Spain the battle 
of Almanza. It was the greatest defeat which the allies 
suffered during the war, and was inflicted by 
the Duke of Berwick. The English found A?min°a, 
some consolation for their defeat in the March, 

• A - D- I 7°7- 

thought that their conqueror was an English- 
man. Berwick indeed had much of the generalship, 
the coolness in action, and the bravery of his uncle, 
Marlborough. 

Almanza in Valencia is a town situated in an open 
plain. As Berwick was stronger than the ,«. 

■,-... , , 1 he positions. 

allies in cavalry, the country was better 



92 The Age of Anne. a.d. 1707. 

suited to him ; but Galway was either ignorant of this fact 
or disregarded it. Anxious to expel the French from 
Valencia, he advanced to the attack. Berwick had 
drawn up his troops, with his infantry and artillery in the 
centre, and his cavalry on the flanks. The various ele- 
ments of Galway's forces were more mixed; and he has 
been especially censured for drawing up infantry in line 
close in the rear of his cavalry. 

The battle began about two in the afternoon. Lord 

Galway, who was as brave in battle as he was cautious 

in council, led an attack upon the French 

Total defeat right which, successful for a moment, was 

of the allies. ° ' ' 

repulsed by the second line under Berwick 
in person. In the centre the French were at first success- 
ful, then driven back: but a French officer prevented 
any evil result from the repulse by declaring that it was 
a feigned retreat made by the general's order. Then 
Berwick came up with reinforcements and restored the 
battle. The first important disaster befell the allies on 
their right. The Portuguese cavalry at the charge of the 
enemy turned and fled, leaving bare and unprotected 
some infantry of their own countrymen, who were cut to 
pieces. Some Spanish cavalry also on the other wing 
made no resistance. The English infantry in the centre, 
left thus exposed, were attacked on both flank and in 
front at the same time, were outnumbered and compelled 
to surrender. A force of thirteen battalions escaped to 
a wood, but surrendered next day to the French cavalry 
who surrounded them. 

Two days after the fight Lord Galway wrote to Marl- 
borough : — 

" I am under deep concern to be obliged to tell your 
lordship we were entirely defeated. Both our wings 
were broke, and let in the enemy's horse, which sur- 



a.d. 1707. The Year of Disaster. 93 

rounded our foot, so that none could get off. I received 

a cut in the forehead in the first charge I cannot, 

my lord, but look upon the affairs of Spain as lost by 
this bad disaster; our foot, which was our main strength, 
being gone, and the horse we have left chiefly Portu- 
guese, which is not good at all ... . All the generals 
here are of opinion that we cannot continue in this king- 
dom." 

Lord Galway did not exaggerate the importance of the 
defeat. The whole of the provinces of Valencia and 
Aragon surrendered to the French. The 
town of Valencia opened its gates to them ^ es !| 1 f 3 of 
without any effort at resistance; the few 
towns which did resist were soon overpowered, and were 
treated with severity. The Archduke Charles was re- 
duced to the single province of Catalonia, where the 
inhabitants were still faithful to him ; but here his army 
was so small that he could hardly have withstood an 
invasion, had one been made. 

Once more it seemed as if the cause of the allies was 
hopeless in Spain. The only chance for that cause was 
the appointment of a really able commander 
with adequate forces. Such a commander shouidhave 
was Eugene, and such forces could easily ^ ee c s ^ nt 

° ' •'to Spain. 

have been sent by sea from North Italy to 
Barcelona. The English and Dutch ministers used their 
best endeavours to procure the adoption of this policy. 
But the Emperor, preferring his own interests, despatched 
a large force into Naples to secure that 

1 1 mi Emperor 

kingdom. It was easy work. The impe- secures 
rialist troops under Daun, the gallant defen- ap es 

der of Turin, were received with welcome, and the few 
who held out for Philip were besieged and taken in 



94 The Age of Anne. a.d. 1707. 

Gaeta. The Island of Majorca also declared for Charles. 
These victories, however, might have been secured at 
any time. 

It was with difficulty that the Emperor could even be 
brought to sanction a plan on which Marlborough 
strongly insisted, the invasion, namely, of France in the 
south-east, so as to produce a diversion from the war in 
Spain. There was still hope that the Protestants might 
rise. The English fleet would co-operate. 
Attempt on The place to be attacked was Toulon, and 

loulon. r 

the army was to be under the command of 
Eugene and the Duke of Savoy. Had the former known 
how very unprepared the place was, he would probably 
have attacked it at once and taken it. The engineer 
whom Lewis sent down to defend Toulon reported that 
it was not a fortress, but rather a garden, being over- 
spread with large country houses, orchards, and con- 
vents. Whilst he was working hard to get ready and 
defend the place, Eugene prepared to attack it in due 
form. But his army was straitened for supplies; and, 
threatened by the advance of a large French force, Eu- 
gene and his cousin who had commenced the attempt 
half-heartedly, determined to raise the siege. 

There was yet one other military disaster this year. 
The imperialist army on the Upper Rhine, which Lewis 

of Eaden had commanded since the year of 
aifiesTon Blenheim until his death at the beginning of 

Vlli»rs by this y ear> was now c o mm anded by a still 

more incompetent general, the Margrave of 
Bayreuth. His army had to defend the lines of Stollho- 
fen; but Villars, the French marshal, surprised him, 
stormed the strong lines, and entirely routed the German 
troops. Villars was thus able to break into the Palati- 
nate, and in imitation of the former French conduct he 



a.d. 1708. Later Fighting in the Low Countries. 95 

laid much of it waste. Marlborough induced the Em- 
peror after this to take the command from the Margrave, 
and give it to a man of greater capacity, the Elector of 
Hanover, the future King George of England. 

Yet another calamity befell the English, but not from 
the hand of the enemy. Sir Cloudesley Shovel was 
bringing back his fleet to England from the 
Mediterranean, when it met with stormy JlUofSir 1 
weather off the Scilly Isles. On a dark Cloudesley 

. . J Shovel. 

night in October, three ships, including the 
admiral's, "the Association," were dashed against the 
Gilstone Rock, and only one man escaped of their 
crews. The admiral's body was washed ashore and 
found by some fishermen, who plundered it and buried 
it in the sand. His large emerald ring, however, was 
recognised, and, on the fishermen confessing, his body 
was taken up, and received a grand funeral in West- 
minster Abbey. 

At the end of this year the country was sick of the 
war, and would have welcomed a peace. During the 
rest of the war this feeling grew, nor did any military 
glory again diminish it. 



CHAPTER XI. 

LATER FIGHTING IN THE LOW COUNTRIES. 

Section I. — Oudenarde and Lille. 
The discontent felt in England against the war, and the 
fact that the bonds which held the alliance together 
seemed to be growing loose, convinced 
Marlborough that this year (1708) a blow a blow- 

must be struck. He reports that the burgo- 



96 The Age of Anne. a.d. 1708. 

master of Amsterdam, who had hitherto been in favour 
of the war, had warned him that the Dutch were turning 
towards the idea of making for themselves a separate 
peace. Moreover, the inhabitants of Brabant, who had 
welcomed the success of the allies after Ramillies, and 
who might have been still warm in their favour if Marl- 
borough had been permitted to accept the government 
of the country, which Charles had offered, and still con- 
tinued to offer, were becoming dissatisfied. The tem- 
porary government was chiefly in the hands of Dutch 
commissioners, who were by no means conciliatory, as 
Marlborough would have been. The Dutch boasted 
that at the peace they would keep the country ; and as 
they were Protestants and the inhabitants staunch Catho- 
lics, the boast was very unpalatable to the latter. This 
feeling was known to the French, whom the inaction of 
the previous year also put in good heart. They deter- 
mined now to make an effort to win the 

Brabant 

inclining to country back. Bruges and Ghent opened 
their gates to French troops. There was 
disaffection among the soldiers at Antwerp; but Marl- 
borough, having received information of it, was able to 
prevent any outbreak. 

The next place which the French attempted to secure 
was Oudenarde, a strong fortress on the Scheldt. It was 
important to them on account of its position, standing 
between Brabant and their own frontier. The French 
army was nominally commanded by a royal 
g e s eof prince, the Duke of Burgundy; but, as the 

fashion was with French armies, a general 
of greater skill was sent with him, whose duty it was to 
guide him and make up by his skill for the prince's in- 
experience. This was the Duke of Vendome. But for 
this "arrangement to work well it is absolutely necessary 



a.d. 1706. Later Fighting in the Low Countries. 97 

that the prince and his general should be on friendly 
terms, or at any rate have a mutual understanding. The 
feeling between the Dukes of Burgundy and Vendome 
was strong repugnance, if not actual animosity. The 
Duke of Burgundy was a devout Catholic, with the 
manners of royalty, but lacking military skill. The 
Duke of Vendome was an infidel, dirty in his habits, 
and lazy, but with genius as a general. A kingdom 
divided against itself will not stand. An army in the 
direction of which there is discord so apparent cannot 
succeed. 

Marlborough's army was not so numerous as that of 
the French duke's ; but he was destined to receive one 
auxiliary worth a host. As the war in Italy 
was finished Eugene was free, and it was joins Marl- 
arranged that he should join Marlborough oroug * 
at the head of a body of imperialist troops. There were, 
however, the usual delays in starting : and though Marl- 
borough wrote to hasten him, it was evident that his 
army could not reach Marlborough in time. Scenting 
the battle from afar, Eugene left first his infantry behind, 
then his cavalry, and arrived in Marlborough's camp 
attended only by his personal suite. " My men will be 
encouraged," said Marlborough, "by the presence of so 
distinguished a commander." 

The two generals were agreed as to their plans. It was 
determined to march between France and the French 
army, so that, in case of defeat, the French could not 
retreat to their own territory. On the approach of the 
allies, the siege of Oudenarde was raised, 
the French marching northwards. The oidlnarfe, 
French, their faces turned towards Paris, J ul y ". 

7 A.D. 1708. 

occupied a strong position, defended by 

some rising ground. The allies moved to the attack at 



gS The Age of Anne. a. d. 1708. 

three in the afternoon of July n, 1708, greatly to the 
surprise of the French generals, for the allied army had 
just marched fifteen miles. 

Before Marlborough had even got all his army into 
position, he ordered his cavalry to charge, so that if the 
enemy had any thought of retiring without 
b^Vns a battle it was too late. In this first charge 

the Electoral Prince of Hanover, afterwards 
George II., distinguished himself. The right of the allied 
army was assigned to Eugene, out of compliment to 
whom Marlborough made this wing very strong, and 
placed the English troops in it. He himself commanded 
the centre, in which no English were fighting, but various 
corps of the other nations of the Grand Alliance. At 
the first assault the allied left was broken not long after 
it had crossed the Scheldt. The enemy, thinking that 
they were winning, pressed forward to drive the allies 
back into the river. An obstinate fight ensued, hand to 
hand, bayonet to bayonet. Indeed a great deal of the 
battle was of this nature ; it was remarked that artillery 
was hardly employed at all, the fighting being at too 
close range. 

As the French right thus pressed forward, Marlborough 
saw an opportunity of cutting it off, and he sent a very 
strong force under the old Dutch general, Marshal Over- 
kirk, who had fought in William's battles, and in many 
another. He was now in his last field, for he died this 
year. The service was well carried out, and the heights 
behind the French right were occupied. As night came 
on, Overkirk's men on the allied left and Eugene's men, 
who had been working steadily forward on the right, 
almost met. They had even fired some shots into each 
other's ranks, before the mistake was discovered by the 
officers. The order was given to cease firing, and through 



a.d. 1708. Later Fighting in the Low Countries. 99 

the gap that was still open many of the French escaped, 
but many more were taken prisoners. The number of 
slain in the battle was not very great. The Chevalier 
St. George fought on the side of the French. 

The Duke of Vendome, it is said, wished to fight again 
the next day, but the Duke of Burgundy and his friends 
positively refused. " We must then retreat," said Ven- 
dome, angrily; "and I know," he added, looking at 
Burgundy, "that you have long wished to do so." 

A few days after the fight Eugene's army came up, 
but as the Duke of Berwick, who had been watching it 
and marching parallel with it, now joined the main body 
of the French, no real difference was made in the pro- 
portion of the armies. 

After a victory the important question is — what use 
shall be made of it? Eugene wished to attack the strong 
fortress of Lille on the French frontier. 
Marlborough proposed to disregard it, and httSf l ° 

march upon Paris. In this project he would 
have received the support of the Home Government . 
but Eugene considered it dangerous to leave such strong 
enemies in the rear, and the Dutch deputies were aghast 
at the proposal. 

The siege of Lille was looked upon with great interest. 
In all other quarters the war flagged, whilst men's 
attention was turned upon this important 
contest. The fortification of Lille was con- gege of 

sidered a masterpiece of Vauban. BoufHers, 
one of the ablest of French marshals, was defending it. 
It was known that King Lewis was determined to strain 
every effort rather than let Lille be lost. On the other 
hand the allied generals were equally determined to take 
the town. The convoy which brought up the siege tram, 
the heavy artillery and the supplies, was said to have 



ioo The Age of Anne. a. d. 1708. 

been thirteen miles in length. Eugene commanded the 
besieging, Marlborough the covering army, opposed to 
Berwick and Vendome. The regulations which the 
allied generals jointly drew up for those who were to 
serve in the trenches are still considered a valuable 
lesson for the young soldier. Prodigies of valour were 
performed by the defenders. When powder failed, a 
body of French soldiers marched through the enemy's 
lines, each carrying forty pounds of gunpowder. Through 
the leader speaking Dutch, many succeeded in passing 
the sentinels ; but a casual remark in French from an 
officer betrayed the rear. At another time a French 
captain took news into the city, swimming through the 
allied lines down the river Dyle on which Lille is, with 
his letter in his mouth, and escaping the notice of the 
sentinels by swimming under water. He returned to 
the French camp in the same way. 

The chief trouble of the besiegers was to obtain sup- 
plies. On one important convoy bringing provisions 

from Ostend it seemed as if the whole siege 
w irmiS dii at wou ld turn to Eugene's camp. The French 

therefore sent an army to attack it ; Marl- 
borough detached General Webb for its defence. The 
French came upon Webb in the wood of Wynendale, 
but were beaten back, and the provisions reached 
Eugene safely. This affair was considered of impor- 
tance, because Webb, as a Tory, was opposed to Marl- 
borough in politics, and either on that account, or by 
mistake, Marlborough assigned the glory of the skirmish 
to another general. In the time of Marlborough's un- 
popularity afterwards, the Tory House of Commons 
passed a vote of thanks to General Webb for the victory 
at Wynendale. 

As a last resource to prevent supplies reaching Eugene 



A.d. 1709. Later Fighting in the Low Countries. 10 1 

the French opened the sluices, and laid the country un- 
derwater. Whereupon the allies built large flat-bottomed 
boats, and brought the supplies by water. 

After sixty days of gallant defence, Marshal Boufflers 
was obliged to capitulate. It was even said that King 
Lewis wrote that he should not push matters 
to extremity, but spare the lives of those who of Lmf" 
had fought so well. Eugene, in admiration 
of the brave defence, allowed Boufflers to name his own 
terms of capitulation. Lille was not surrendered until 
all its powder had been fired away, and the garrison had 
been for some time living on horse-flesh. 

Section II — Negotiations. 

The winter after Oudenarde and the taking of Lille 
was a terrible time for France. When the spring arrived 
the country was in a condition of absolute 
exhaustion. The efforts, which had been re- francef 

quired after such defeats as Blenheim, 
Ramillies, and Turin, and by the variety of points on 
which the country was open to the attacks of the allies, 
had emptied the treasury, and increased to an enormous 
extent the public debt, had robbed the fields of their 
cultivators, and caused them to be left untilled. Bank- 
ruptcy and famine stared France in the face. There was 
no money to pay the soldiers ; the taxes were unfruitful ; 
no one seemed to have money to lend. The only quarter 
whence corn could be imported was the Levant ; but 
English cruisers swarmed in the Mediterranean, and in- 
tercepted the corn ships. There was nothing for the 
people to eat but black bread ; even the fine ladies at 
Versailles lived on oat-cakes. The winter was one of 
especial severity. It was terribly cold in England, 
where the Thames was frozen over for weeks, but its 



102 The Age of Anne. a.d. 1709. 

effects were more terrible in France, for there they were 
suffering starvation. 

Lewis XIV., who claimed to be the father of his peo- 
pie, was touched with their distress, and humbled him- 
self to apply for peace. He sent an ambas- 

Lewis pro sador to Holland with proposals very ad- 

poses terms. r r j 

vantageous to the allies. He proposed that 
his grandson should surrender all the Spanish do- 
minions, except Naples and Sicily, which were to be 
made into a separate kingdom for him. 

Marlborough was appointed English plenipotentiary, 
together with Lord Townshend, an honest but not very 

able man, who on the accession of George I. 
The terms of became the Whig Prime-Minister. The 

the allies. ° 

English insisted on the cession of the whole 
Spanish monarchy, on the acknowledgment of the 
queen and the Protestant succession, on the banishment 
of the pretender, and the demolition of the works at 
Dunkirk. To these the various allies added other 
claims, each for their own advantage, at the expense of 
France. The most important was the Dutch claim for a 
barrier or chain of strong fortresses to secure them from 
attack. As to the particular fortresses claimed Marl- 
borough thought the Dutch were asking too much. 

When the terms were made known in Versailles the 
scene at the cabinet is described as most melancholy. 

The princes of the blood royal even shed 
Embassy of tears on the condition of France ; but it was 

lorcy. 

determined to proceed with the negotiations. 
M. de Torcy himself, the minister for foreign affairs, was 
„ , sent to the Hague to see whether he could 

Conference ° __ , mi 

of the procure easier terms. He has described 

several interviews which he had with Marl- 
borough, to whom he was empowered to offer a large 



A. D. 1709. Later Fighting in the Low Countries. 103 

bribe. But the French minister himself tells us that 
Marlborough would not listen to the disgraceful, offer. 
The allies adhered to their proposals, adding to rather 
than abating from them. 

The conditions with which Torcy returned to Versailles 
were harder than before : that the whole Spanish mon- 
archy should be ceded to the Archduke 
Charles, and that the Dutch should have intolerable 

proposal. 

all the frontier towns for which they asked. 
It was known that Philip would not quietly surrender 
his hold of Spain, where he had won the love of the 
Castilians. ''God had placed him on the Spanish 
throne," he said, " and he would maintain himself there 
with the last drop of his blood." A clause was there- 
fore added, saying that, unless Spain and Sicily were 
surrendered within two months, King Lewis was to join 
the allies in driving his own grandson from his throne. 
However crushed France was, these terms were intol- 
erable. However much king and people might long for 
peace, it was not to be bought thus. Madame de 
Maintenon indeed wanted Lewis to accept this condition, 
but another cabinet meeting was held, at which bolder 
counsels were heard. " If I must continue the war," 
said Lewis with a spirit that brings back his 

i- 1 ,. t mi 1 • Appeal to 

earlier days, I will contend against my th- people, 
enemies rather than against my own fam- ay I70C> 

ily." He made an appeal to his people to meet the 
emergency, sending a circular to all the governors of pro- 
vinces, intending that its contents should be made pub- 
lic. He spoke of his own desire for peace and his 
efforts to secure it : he was prepared, he said, to make 
humiliating sacrifices, but the more he showed himself 
disposed towards them, the more did the allies rise in 
their demands; they seemed determined to open to 



104 The Age of Anne. a.d. 1709. 

themselves avenues by which they might penetrate into 
the heart of France ; even if he had consented to all their 
conditions it would not have procured peace. " Seeing," 
he continued, " that our enemies in their pretence to 
negotiate are palpably insincere, we have only to con- 
sider how to defend ourselves, and show them that 
France united can resist the united powers of Europe 
in their attempts, by fair means or by foul, to ruin her. 
All the ordinary sources of revenue are exhausted. 
I come before you for your counsel and assistance, at a 
time when our very safety as a nation is at stake : let us 
show our enemies that we are still not sunk so low but 
that we can force upon them such a peace as shall con- 
sist with our honour and with the good of Europe." 

Marlborough and the allies did not expect an answer 
such as this appeal produced, or such a result to their 

intolerable and humiliating demands. The 
The answer French were touched by these words from 

one whom they had regarded as almost su- 
perhuman. Poorly clad and half-starved recruits flocked 
to the standards, but there was a new spirit in their eyes. 
A war which had been the French king's war became 
the French people's, and a larger army was set on foot 
than ever during the war before. 

Section III. — Malplaquet. 

Marlborough, who knew the effort that France was 
making, and the importance which on that account at- 
tached to the approaching campaign, 
Prepara- pressed upon the English Government the 

necessity of strengthening his army. He 
used his best endeavours also to obtain more troops from 
the other nations of the confederacy. He knew well 
the military maxim, that in a desperate struggle, victory 



a.d. 1709. Later Fighting in the Low Countries. 105 

will fall to that side which can bring up reserves when 
its enemy no longer can. Marlborough succeeded in 
persuading the home Government to send some extra 
troops, and not to recall certain regiments from An- 
twerp: the Dutch also sent 4,000 German troops who 
were in their pay. But the number of men under arms 
was already very large, larger than ever before, and 
reaching more nearly to the size of modern armies. 
Those with the French standards were about as nu- 
merous as those in the allied army. There were about 
110,000 men in each. But the French were badly sup- 
plied ; the distress in France showed itself in the army 
in the scarcity of bread. If a detachment had to march, 
it was said, it could only have a full breakfast by dimin- 
ishing the breakfast of the troops that were to halt. 

The command of the French army was now given to 
Villars, the only French marshal who had not as yet 
been defeated in the war. The soldiers be- 
lieved in his luck, which it was hoped would Buifflerf nd 
not now desert him. Boufflers, who had 
won himself glory by his brave defence of Lille, offered, 
although senior to Villars, to serve under him : and this 
noble example, part as it were of the wave of enthu- 
siasm which was sweeping over France, did much to 
kindle the ardour of the soldiers, who, mostly consisting 
of raw levies, were opposed to the veterans under Marl- 
borough and Eugene. Villars was the able general who 
had shown clemency to the Camisards. He was much 
addicted to boasting on assuming command. The first 
thing that he did was to announce that his army was 
much larger than it really was ; the second was to give a 
ball. 

The plan of campaign which the allied generals set 
before them was a continuance of that which had made 
I 



io6 The Age of Anne. a.d. 1709. 

the siege of Lille a necessity. It was to 
Plan of cam- force their way into France, leaving no 

paign. . # ° 

stronghold behind. The only formidable 
fortresses which stood between were Tournai, Mons, and 
Valenciennes. They would also have to fight the army 
of Villars, whose business was likewise twofold— to pre- 
vent the capture of these towns, and to prevent the army 
of the allies from penetrating across the frontier. With 
this latter object he began to make strong works behind 
the rivers Scarpe, Scheldt, and Trouille. 

Marlborough made an advance, as if to attack the 
army of Villars, who thereupon hastily withdrew troops 
from Tournai to strengthen his forces. Then 
by a night-march the allied troops quickly 
invested Tournai thus weakened. The place was as 
bravely defended as it was strongly fortified, and the 
citadel was especially strong. Vauban's skill had been 
employed on all these towns along the French frontier, 
and Tournai was considered his masterpiece. The 
town was taken in a month ; the remains of the garrison 
then retired into the citadel, which resisted for five more 
weeks. The terrors of the siege were increased by the 
fact that in none of the other sieges were mines so much 
employed by the besieged. Just when a breach was 
made in the walls, and the allies were advancing towards 
it, a mine would be sprung and 300 soldiers blown into 
the air. Or when a party of the besiegers had discovered 
a mine, and were congratulating themselves on the dis- 
covery, they were blown up by the explosion of another 
mine beneath it. On September 3, however, the garri- 
son surrendered, and Marlborough in consideration 
of their bravery let the defenders march out with the 
honours of war. 

The next object of attack was Mons; but to invest 



a.d. 1 709. Later Fighting in the Low Countries. 107 

this it was necessary to break through some part of the 
French lines, and to cross the river Haine. 
On the night of the surrender, an advance 
guard was sent to seize St. Ghislain, if possible ; but it 
was too strong for them. A second and stronger force 
under the Prince of Hesse pushed further on, and 
crossed the river above the town of Mons; and then 
finding a gap between the town and the lines of the 
French behind the Trouille, which joins the Haine just 
below Mons, the prince advanced, and invested Mons 
on the southern side. This movement, which succeeded 
almost without opposition, was of great service. It made 
an opening through the French lines, and placed the 
allies between Mons and France. If Villars wished to 
stop the siege of the town, his only chance was by risking 
a battle. He advanced therefore towards Mons from 
the south, and took up a strong position at Malplaquet. 
The allied generals were, however, as ready as he was 
for a battle. They had followed close upon the heels 
of Hesse, and on September 9 held a council of war. 
The Dutch deputies were of course opposed to fighting. 
Marlborough was for an immediate attack before the 
enemy could intrench himself; but Eugene, who also 
wished to fight, was yet willing to delay, until more bat- 
talions which were expected from before Tournai should 
come up. This, as a middle course was adopted, but 
there can be no doubt that Marlborough was right. The 
stubborn resistance that the French made two days later 
was greatly assisted by the intrenchments which they 
had thrown up; and the right policy would have been 
to attack at once or not at all. 

The ground round Malplaquet was very thickly 
wooded. It was originally part of a large forest, 
which in many places had yielded to cultivation. 



io8 The Age of Anne. a.d. 1709. 

Description To the north, the direction in which Mons 

of ground. 

lay, there were two woods, Laniere and 
Taisniere, and between them a glade or open space, 
which was called the Trouee of Aulnoit. At the south- 
ern end of this glade Villars intrenched himself : he had 
used the two days well. When the English soldiers ad- 
vanced, they murmured — " So we have still to fight 
against moles." Villars had also occupied the woods. 

The battle that followed was terribly bloody. It was 

won, not by strategy, but by downright hard fighting. 

Each wing of the allies was once repulsed. 

Malplaquet, The T1 S ht had t0 n £ ht ltS Wa Y through the 

September ' wood of Taisniere. The left was under the 

II, A.D. 1709. . 

command of the Prince of Orange ; and 
when, after most terrible slaughter, it was at length 
driven back', Marlborough told the prince that this attack 
was only intended to be a feint. It is uncertain whether 
this was intended as a consolation to the prince for his 
repulse, or was really a part of Marlborough's plan. 
Prince Eugene was wounded in the battle, being shot 
behind the ear; but when his officers begged him to re- 
tire and have the wound dressed, he said "there would 
be time enough for that in the evening, if he survived." 
On the other side Villars was wounded more seriously, 
but he also showed the same spirit. He ordered a chair 
to be brought, that he might continue to direct the battle, 
but he fainted in it, and was removed from the scene. 
Boufflers, on whom the command devolved, found that 
after four hours' hard fighting his centre was broken, 
and the intrenchments carried. The French, however, 
were able to retreat in good order from the field. The 
loss of the allies in thus dislodging the French amounted 
to about 20,000 men, or nearly one-fifth of the force that 
they brought into the field. The French, who fought 



a.d. 1709. Later Campaigns in Spain. 109 

behind intrenchments, lost a little more than half that 
number. These two facts, the excellent retreat and the 
loss of the allies, made Malplaquet a very different de- 
feat for the French from Blenheim, Ramillies, or Oude- 
narde. Lewis's circular had borne good fruit, and there 
was truth in Villars' boast : " If God vouchsafe that we 
should lose such another battle, your majesty could count 
your enemies destroyed." Some such feeling may have 
influenced also the mind of Marlborough, as well as the 
loss of his old friends and comrades. He is said to have 
been unusually distressed after this battle. He became 
seriously ill, and a report, afterwards expressed in a tri- 
umphant song, was spread amongst the French that he 
was dead. 

But the victory remained with the allies. The siege 
of Mons was not raised. That fortress surrendered on 
October 26 ; and the allies went into winter quarters. 
Marlborough recovered from his fever ; but had he died 
then, he had, perhaps, been happier in the opportunity 
of his death. His last great field was fought, his last 
great victory won. 



CHAPTER XII. 

LATER CAMPAIGNS IN SPAIN. 

Section I. — The Three Years that followed Almanza. 

The battle of Almanza was a singularly decisive battle, 
and its effects were long felt. Certainly for three years 
the allies remained on the defensive, and 
languid campaigns were the result of that Almanza. 
defeat. t Lord Gal way, the defeated English 



no The Age of Anne. ad. 1709. 

general, was recalled from his post, and appointed to the 
command of the English auxiliary troops in Portugal. 
In his place, as the Emperor could not be persuaded to 
send Prince Eugene, an English and a German general 
were appointed. Of these two, Stanhope, 
the Englishman, was the abler. As minis- 
ter at the Court of Charles he had obtained an intimate 
acquaintance with the state of affairs in Spain. As a 
general we find him usually in favour of bold plans, and 
brave in their execution. Without military genius he 
seems to have had respectable talents for war : in later 
times he occupied no mean position as Prime- Minister, 
in the reign of George I. Staremberg, his German col- 
league, was a methodical general, very slow and cau- 
tious in his plans, who, without a spark of genius for 
war, had tried, but in vain, to make up for the deficiency 
by study. 

Unsuccessful on the mainland, the allied generals 
were more successful in the Islands of the Mediterranean. 
Sardinia declared for Charles almost imme- 
diately upon the appearance of the English 
fleet before it. A more important conquest was that of 
Minorca. Every winter the English fleet had been 
obliged to return to England for the winter. On this ac- 
count the English Government pressed upon the atten- 
tion of their commanders, that they should endeavour to 
secure some port in the Mediterranean, so as to prevent 
the necessity for this return. As the attempts on Toulon 
had hitherto failed, it was suggested that Port Mahon, 
the harbour of Minorca, considered the best harbour in 
that part of the sea, would do equally well. Marlborough 
had strongly advised Stanhope to make an attempt to 
secure this harbour. " I conjure you, if possible, to take 
Port Mahon," 



a.d. 1709. Later Campaigns in Spain. in 

Stanhope found opposition amongst the naval men 
to this project, for it was known that Port Mahon was 
strongly defended. He therefore got to- 
gether transports, embarked his troops, and p< ? rt Mahon 
then sent word to the navy that he was 
going. The men of war soon followed. His artil- 
lery consisted of ships' guns and mortars ; his force 
amounted to 2,600, including marines. On account of 
the rocky and steep nature of the coast, it took him twelve 
days to land his cannon, and get it into position ; but so 
vigorous then was his attack, that within one day he had 
effected a breach, and made an entry into the outer works, 
whilst within four days the place had surrendered. Stan- 
hope thought so highly of the harbour which he had thus 
captured, that he filled it only with English troops, and 
advised the English Government not to surrender 
it to the Archduke Charles, but to hold it as security 
against the large sums of money which he owed them. 
Charles did not like the plan, but made a virtue of ne- 
cessity. 

Meanwhile, Berwick had been succeeded as comman- 
der-in-chief of the French forces in Spain by the Duke 
of Orleans, an ambitious and bad man, 
whom we have already seen at the siege of ^ u j ke ot 

Turin. He was nephew of King Lewis, after 
his death and during the minority of his successor, Re- 
gent of France, and ancestor of the House of Orleans, 
which has given a king to France during this century. 
From him, Stanhope, on returning from Minorca, re- 
ceived a proposal, which the Duke of Orleans suggested 
might be made the basis of an arrangement that would 
finish the war. He proposed that the allies should 
withdraw Charles — the French, Philip — because neither 
party would consent to the candidate of the other reign- 



ii2 The Age of Anne. a.d. 1709 

ing as King oi" Spain; that both parties should then 
accept in that capacity him, the Duke of Orleans. Stan- 
hope answered that he could not betray Charles, but 
suggested that it might be possible to make an indepen- 
dent kingdom for the duke out of Navarre and Langue- 
doc, part of the south of France, where the Protestants 
had been in rebellion. 

This was probably intended to keep the duke quiet 

at least for a time. But his correspondence with the 

enemy was discovered and carried to King 

French with- . . 

drawn from Lewis, and it was impossible that he could 
pain ' any longer be the French general in Spain. 

Indeed, in order to support his negotiations for peace, 
Lewis had withdrawn or professed to withdraw all his 
troops from Spain. He had a way of withdrawing with 
one hand and giving back with the other: it was hinted 
to the men that they might desert the French for the 
Spanish standards. But for the present Lewis did not 
send another French general. 

In the spring of the next year the army of Portugal, 
which consisted chiefly of Portuguese troops, but con- 
tained also some English regiments under 
Lord Galway, fought an action on the fron- 
tier between Spain and Portugal, at a place called La 
Gudina. The battle was indeed but a repetition of 
Almanza on a small scale. There was the same cow- 
ardice on the part of the Portuguese horse, not shared 
in any way by their infantry ; the same personal courage 
and the same military incapacity in Lord Galway ; the 
same stubborn bravery on the part of the English troops. 
Fortunately, the battle was on a smaller scale. Its 
results were also rendered less serious than they might 
have been by a threatened attempt by Stanhope on 
Cadiz. 



A.D. 1 710. Later Campaigns in Spain. 113 

Section II. — The Final Campaign. 

In the spring of 17 10 General Stanhope succeeded in 
obtaining from the English Government larger forces 
than had yet been employed in Spain. 
Using these as arguments, he with great advance 6 ' 55 
difficulty persuaded Staremberg, his col- 
league, to consent to vigorous action, and the Archduke 
Charles to make a bold stroke for the crown that might 
be his. He even induced Charles to promise that when 
the army was ready to advance he would join it. Since 
Almanza the allies had been confined within the single 
province of Catalonia, which was always faithful. The 
attempt was now to be made to extend their bounds. 

The river Noguera, during some part of its course the 
boundary between Catalonia and Aragon, falls into the 
Segre at Lerida, and is a branch of the Segre which falls 
into the Ebro. The Spanish army — under the command 
of Villadarias, the gallant veteran who had 
stirred up the resistance to the allies at E*"™ *" A1 " 



menara. 



Cadiz, now drawn from retirement by his 
country's need — was prepared to dispute the entrance 
of the allies into Aragon. For the greater part of the 
months of June and July there was no action of impor- 
tance. Stanhope was always in favour of bolder coun- 
sels, and always met with resistance from Staremberg 
and Charles. At the end of July the allies advanced, 
and had just crossed the river Noguera, when the enemy 
came in sight. The others were still unwilling to fight, 
and at about six in the evening the Spaniards sent some 
squadrons of cavalry down the hill as it were to defy the 
English to an engagement. A loud cry of shame broke 
from the English ranks. Stanhope at length obtained 
A reluctant consent. Though there was but half an 



H4 The Age of Anne. a.d. 1710. 

hour's daylight left, he drew up his cavalry in two lines 
and charged, himself at their head. Stanhope himself 
engaged the general in command of the Spanish cavalry, 
and killed him with one blow of his sword. This almost 
Homeric incident is portrayed on the medal struck in 
honour of the battle. The charge was wholly success- 
ful, the enemy were routed, and their camp taken. 
Philip himself was in great danger, and only escaped 
through the bravery of his friends. The half-hour was 
sufficient, though Stanhope wished for more time. "If 
we had had but two hours more of daylight," he wrote, 
"you may be assured that not one foot soldier of their 
army could have escaped." " If God had granted us," 
wrote one of his subalterns, "the same favour that He 
did to Joshua, to stop the sun two or three hours, none 
of their infantry, and very few of their cavalry would 
have escaped." The infantry of the allies was not en- 
gaged at all. 

The result of the battle of Almenara was that even 

Charles and Staremberg consented to advance; but one 

month later Stanhope had almost the same 

Battle of difficulty to induce them to fight again. The 

Saragossa. J ° ° 

scene of the next battle was Saragossa, the 
ancient capital of Aragon, famous in later history for its 
stubborn resistance to the French. Stanhope managed 
to take his army across the Ebro without any resistance, 
though resistance then might have proved a serious ob- 
stacle. The armies were separated by a deep ravine. 
Their numbers were nearly equal, the Spanish army 
being rather the larger, and amounting to 25,000. The 
battle of Saragossa was fought in full view of the people 
of the town from which it takes its name. The English 
and allied troops had to fight without their breakfast, 
because the convoys had miscarried. The battle began 



a.d. 1 710. Later Campaigns in Spain. 115 

early with cannonading. As seems usual in these bat- 
tles in Spain, there was a body of Portuguese horsemen 
on the left of the allies, who made no resistance to the 
Spaniards opposing them. The latter pursued them with 
impetuosity, and thus gave Stanhope an opportunity of 
pressing forward into the gap. The main body of the 
allies fought their way across the ravine. Some of the 
Spanish newly-levied troops ran ; but one body of vete- 
rans would hardly surrender when surrounded. Cannon 
and standards fell to the conquerors. Almanza was 
avenged. 

That night Charles occupied Saragossa, and there the 
army rested for a short time. Charles and his German 
advisers seemed to wish to remain there; 
but Stanhope dwelt upon his instructions J^ance," 
that something decisive must be done. He 
wished to advance upon Madrid, and summon thither 
the allied army from the other side of Spain, the army 
from the command of which Gal way had just been re- 
moved. Once more Stanhope prevailed. The know- 
ledge that the campaigns were fought to a great extent 
by means of English money must have weighed with 
Charles. 

It is characteristic of Stanhope's eagerness, that on 
the advance to Madrid he himself commanded the van- 
guard of light horse. There was hardly a 
fortnight's interval between the time when Madrid. UPy 
Philip left Madrid and Charles's entry. But 
the difference between the return of the defeated Philip 
and the arrival cf the victorious Charles was instructive. 
It ought to have taught this lesson — the lesson repeated 
in our own day — that these Castilians were not a people 
on whom a king could be thrust by the will of foreigners. 
One marvels that Charles should have sought to reign 



n6 The Age of Anne. a.b. 1710. 

over a people who so manifestly hated him. Once 
before the allies had occupied Madrid, and the arch- 
duke could not then be persuaded to go thither. Per- 
haps it had been better had he then gone, and obtained 
a convincing proof how unpopular he was in that city, 
and how hopeless his cause: for the allies were received 
in Madrid on their second visit in the same way as on 
their first. The same affection was displayed for a 
defeated king, which his subjects had been slow to show 
when he was prosperous ; the same depths of seemingly 
sluggish natures were stirred. Everyone who could 
leave Madrid had retired with the king to Valladolid. 
Delicate and high-born women went on foot rather than 
stay. The streets were empty ; the shops were shut. 
There was no demonstration of joy unless for payment; 
there w^re signs of grief on every side. "This city is a 
desert," Charles angrily exclaimed, and left it. 

Thus the cause of the heretics, as the allies were 
called, was at its worst just when it seemed to be most 

successful. They could with difficulty obtain 
Toledo*-* supplies in Madrid. The enemy's light 

horse cut off foraging parties. The allied 
army in Portugal was then under a Portuguese general, 
for its new English commander, Galway's successor, 
had not yet arrived, and it could not be induced to move. 
Notwithstanding these difficulties Stanhope determined 
to winter in these parts, with his head-quarters at Toledo. 
It was said that as Charles left Madrid the inhabitants 
rang the bells for joy. 

The position of the allies, however, in Castile became 
more and more untenable. Charles himself was anxious 

to return to his queen at Barcelona, He 
Catalonia. started off with an escort of 2,000 horsemen, 

a force which, as the allies had before been 



A.D. 1 710. Later Campaigns in Spain. 117 

weak in cavalry, they were ill able to spare. It was now 
determined that they should return to Catalonia ; but on 
account of the difficulty in obtaining supplies the troops 
were divided into three bodies, which were to march at 
the distance of some thirty miles apart. It was hoped 
that they would thus be able to draw supplies from f 
wider range of country. The Catalans and Portuguese 
marched on the right ; Staremberg with the Germans in 
the centre ; Stanhope and his English on the left. 

In most wars it is found that successful armies in- 
crease, whilst defeated armies have a tendency to dwin- 
dle. Yet since the defeat at Saragossa 
Philip's army had grown, that of the allies Vendome sent 

r J » ' to Spain. 

had dwindled. Such was the effect of Cas- 
tilian pride, of Spanish enthusiasm. Moreover Lewis had 
no longer reason even to appear to withhold help from 
Philip. He did not send soldiers, but he sent him a 
general. He sent Vendome, the general who had lost 
Oudenarde, because he was no match for Marlborough, 
but who would win victories in Spain, for neither Stan- 
hope nor Staremberg was a match for him. The faults 
in Vendome's character have been noticed before ; this 
was an occasion when, anxious for his reputation, he 
exerted himself to the utmost. The indolent marshal 
showed vigour such as none other had shown. He was 
with his army on the alert before the allies marched 
towards Valencia. When once they were retreating, he 
marched after them at an incredible pace. 

He first came upon Stanhope and the English in the 
town of Brihuega, where they had stopped for the pur- 
pose of baking bread. The English had _ „ 

r „ Defeat of 

no notion that Vendome was so near. English at 

Never expecting that the Spanish troops 

could march so swiftly, Stanhope does not seem to have 



n8 The Age of Anne. a.d. 1710. 

even stationed the usual outposts. First some horse- 
men showed themselves on the heights above Brihuega, 
which is a small town with an old Moorish wall, and 
almost surrounded by hills; next, but on the same day, 
infantry appeared. With difficulty could Stanhope send 
an aide-de-camp to inform Staremberg of his position, 
for Vendome's troops quickly invested the town. The 
night was spent by Vendome in preparations for an 
attack, while Stanhope prepared for defence. The 
English built barricades in the street, made loopholes 
for musketry, and passages from house to house. They 
had no artillery, and every street was commanded by 
Vendome's cannon. A summons to surrender was met 
with a refusal ; but a breach was soon made in the old 
Moorish wall. When the Spanish troops entered the 
town there followed a street fight, the English making a 
most stubborn resistance. When their ammunition was 
all spent they fought with the bayonet, until, seeing that 
further resistance was useless, Stanhope capitulated. 
The troops became prisoners of war upon honourable 
terms. 

Meanwhile, where was Staremberg? He had received 
the message from Stanhope's aide-de-camp, but had ap- 
parently delayed, until he could call in the right wing; 
when, on the morning after the siege, he came near to 
Brihuega, he heard no firing, and therefore understood 

that Stanhope had capitulated. The Spanish 
vriV'V^ army was now manifestly the stronger in 

numbers, but was fatigued after the severe 
fighting of the previous day. Yet Vendome was anxious 
for a battle; Staremberg was not. To prevent the re- 
treat of the German marshal, Vendome ordered a charge 
of the Royal Guards. Philip himself headed it, and, 
fired by his presence, the Spanish cavalry upon the 



a.d. 1 710. Later Campaigns in Spain. 119 

right entirely routed their opponents, and captured their 
cannon. This wing was carried too far in the pursuit, 
and meanwhile Staremberg himself, upon the German 
right, was leading a triumphant charge, followed by 
another equally successful on the centre. He recovered 
his own, and captured all the Spanish cannon ; then the 
victorious Spanish right returned from their pursuit, and 
the battle was renewed, until night put an end to it. The 
battle, which is usually called after the small town of 
Villa Viciosa, may be counted as drawn. The Spanish 
lost all their artillery, but had captured some standards. 
On the night after the battle, Philip's baggage had not 
come up, and there was no bed for his majesty. " You 
shall have the most glorious bed that ever monarch 
slept on," said Vendome, as he sent for the captured 
standards, and had them spread before him. Starem- 
berg certainly, even if the battle be counted his, was in 
no position to profit by it. Early next morning he spiked 
all the cannon and retreated quickly, harassed on his 
march almost as far as Barcelona, which he entered 
with 7,000 men, the sorry remnant of the army of the 
allies. 

This was the last campaign in Spain. Madrid twice 
occupied, and twice abandoned for the same reason, the 
allies saw that it was impossible to hold 
Spain for Charles, as long as the feeling of End of the 

r ' ° ° war in Spain, 

the Spaniards remained unchanged. And 
when the news was brought to Lewis, he also felt that 
no other attempt would be made, that the point for which 
he had been fighting was gained. His grandson would 
remain King of Spain. So there was joy at Versailles, 
and men sang before the king a song of triumph. 



1 20 The Age of Anne. a. d . 1 7 1 o. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

THE FORTUNES OF PARTIES. 

It may be doubted whether the fortunes of English 
parties have ever had so great an effect upon the history 

of Europe as in the reign of Queen Anne. 
parties: The development of parties in that reign is 

Whigs and a i s0 important as the beginning of influences 

which extend to our own days. It has on 
these accounts been thought advisable to speak cf them 
at some length, and to collect their history into one 
chapter. It was indeed at an earlier time than this 
reign that the two great parties ranged themselves in 
opposite camps under the names of Whigs and Tories. 
These parties represent two different principles in the 
human mind. Some men are more disposed to attach 
importance to authority ; some to liberty. The former 
will rally round a monarchy, the latter round a republic. 
In one great earlier contest in English history matters 
had been pushed to extremes, and one principle had 
triumphed in the Civil War, the other in the Restoration. 
But men had learnt a lesson from the history of the 
seventeenth century, and there were very few on either 
side who were not content with a more moderate applica- 
tion of their principle. It may be well to sum up the points 
of contrast between the two parties at this time. Both 
parties were content with the shape which the English 
constitution had assumed. Thus both acquiesced in 
the monarchy and in government by means of a Par- 
liament. The memory of 1660 secured the monarchy 



a . d . 1702. The Fortwies of Parties. 121 

from attack ; the memory of the long contests between 
the Stuarts and their Parliaments, confirmed by the 
victory of 1688, secured the privileges of Parliament. 
The opposition between the parties was therefore nar- 
rower. The Tories believed in the divine origin of the 
monarch's authority; the Whigs did not. The Tories 
wished the sovereign to have greater power ; the Whigs 
wished him to have less. According to the French epi- 
gram, in a constitutional monarchy the king reigns, but 
does not govern. The Whigs held this view of a king's 
duty; but the Tories would have made a monarchy 
more of a reality. 

The Tories felt that the Revolution of 1688 was a 
necessity, but one which they disliked. They would 
have preferred not to disturb the Stuarts: 

r Party views 

and the Jacobites, as those were called who of the Re- 

. , , ~ 1 volution. 

wished to restore the Stuarts, may be re- 
garded as the extreme section of the Tory party. That 
revolution was the work of the Whigs, who always at- 
tached to it the epithet of "Glorious." William was their 
favourite king, and the representative of their ideas. 
Yet William had a much larger share of political power 
than is thought in the present day to lie within the pro- 
vince of the sovereign. He had a very great influence 
in shaping the foreign policy of England. 

But it was on matters connected with religion that the 
distinction between the parties was most widely marked. 
The Tories were the Church party : those to 
whom the rites and doctrines of the Esta- R artie° US 

blished Church were dear. They were very 
hostile to Dissenters, and perhaps scarcely less hostile 
to the Roman Catholics. The Whig party was in favour 
of toleration: to this party the Dissenters belonged 
(/.or they owed to it all the rights which they possessed), 



T22 The Age of Anne. a.d. 1702. 

as well as those Churchmen who, preferring the doc- 
trines of their own Church, yet considered other forms 
of government and modes of worship lawful. Bishop 
Burnet tells us that in this reign the distinction between 
High and Low Church was first known, but, when he 
proceeds to explain it, we see that it is almost the same 
as the difference between Whigs and Tories. 

Queen Anne was a Stuart: by nature and training 

her inclinations were towards the Tory party. It is the 

duty of a sovereign in this country to belong 

The queen's t0 n0 p ar ty. Oueen Anne really strove to 

views. i. j ,~ j 

rise to the height of this duty, of the impor- 
tance of which she was fully aware. More than once 
she herself expressed it. But sometimes her inclinations 
were too strong for her sense of duty, and whenever 
this was the case her inclinations led her to favour the 
Tory party. 

On being called to the throne she gradually removed 
the ministers of her predecessors who belonged to the 

Whig party, and supplied their places with 

Her first , / , . ,. , 

ministry, others of her own selection. She did not 

change the whole ministry; for neither in 
William's reign, nor in the early part of Anne's, was it 
considered necessary that all the ministers should belong 
to one party. She was under the influence of the Marl- 
boroughs. Whilst important places in the royal house- 
hold and about the queen's person were given to his 
wife, very high offices in the State were conferred on 
the Earl of Marlborough, and it was in accordance with 
his desire that Godolphin was appointed to the office of 
Lord High Treasurer, which corresponded to the modern 
position of Prime-Minister 

Godolphin and Marlborough were Tories, but they 
threw themselves heartily into the war in accordance 



a.d. 1703. The Fortunes of Parties. 123 

with the plans of King William. Because it 

was William's policy, the war was dear to ^dAiari" 

the Whigs. Because it was opposed to Lewis, borough 

who was protecting the Stuarts, the Tories 

were but lukewarm in the prosecution of it. It therefore 

came to pass that the ministers received warmer support 

from their opponents, the Whigs, than from their natural 

allies, the Tories. Nor was it wonderful that under 

these circumstances a change came over their own views, 

and that Godolphin and Marlborough gradually passed 

over into the Whig camp. 

A measure called the Occasional Conformity Bill may 
be used to gauge their change- According to the Test 
Act no one could hold office under the 

. Occasional 

Crown, or be a member of a corporation, Conformity 
without taking the Sacrament according ' * 

to the rites of the Church of England. It had come to 
be the practice that many who were really Dissenters 
qualified for office by obeying the Act. They were 
called Occasional Conformists, and were very obnoxious 
to the Tories and High Churchmen. A zealous Tory in 
the House of Commons brought in a Bill punishing this 
Occasional Conformity very severely. By it anyone 
who had taken the Sacrament according to the Test 
Act, and afterwards attended a Dissenting place of 
worship, was to be prevented from holding his appoint- 
ment, and fined 100/., besides 5^. a day for every day 
that he had discharged the duties of his office after 
going to the conventicle. This measure quickly passed 
through the Commons, but in the House of Lords it met 
with sturdy resistance. The Government strained every 
effort to overcome the opposition. Even Prince George 
of Denmark, the queen's consort, himself a Lutheran 
and Occasional Conformist, was urged to come down 



124 The Age of Anne, a.d. 1703-5. 

to the House of Lords to vote for the Bill. " My 
heart is vid you," he is reported to have whispered to 
some who were voting in the opposite lobby. But 
notwithstanding the zeal of the Government, the Whig 
Lords so altered the Bill that the Tory Commons re- 
fused to accept it. A prorogation stopped further 
dispute. 

In November of the same year (1703) this measure 
was brought forward again, but this time the support of 
the Bill by the Government was very luke- 
iorward a warm. Godolphin and Marlborough were 

secon time. separating themselves from the High Tories, 
and beginning to look to the Whigs for at least some 
support. They tried to dissuade their friends from 
bringing the bill in, but in the division they voted in its 
favour. It was defeated in the Lords. 

Next year the Bill was introduced again, and some 

members of the House of Commons, indignant that the 

Bill which they favoured had so often been 

B">Ught • 1 • 1 TT 

forward a rejected in the Upper House, proposed to 

third time. „ ^^ „ k ^ ^ Bm Qf Supply . g0 that j f the 

Lords threw out the Bill they would have the responsi- 
bility of cutting off the supplies of the Government. It 
is a rule of Parliament that the House of 
Lords may not make any alteration in a 
Money-Bill. They can reject it, but cannot amend it. 
The practice, therefore, of tacking — that is, joining 
another Bill to a Money-Bill — would, if unscrupulously 
employed, enable a majority in the Commons not only 
to defeat the Lords, but to deprive them altogether of 
their constitutional right of making amendments. On 
this account the practice has been made illegal. The 
proposal to tack, however, was on this occasion 
rejected in the Commons; and when the Bill came 



A.D. 1705. The Fortunes of Parties. 125 

before the fcords, Marlborough and Godolphin gave their 
votes against it, though neither of them spoke. In the 
elections of 1705 the ministers used their influence 
against the tackers. "Give them no quarter," was 
Marlborough's advice. The result of that general elec- 
tion was that the Whigs obtained a majority: and the 
Occasional Conformity Bill for the present slept. 

The leaders of the Whig party at this time were five 
Whig peers, who were called " the Junto." Four of 
them had been ministers of King William. 

° The Junto. 

The man of greatest eminence among them Lord 
was Lord Somers. There was no English- 
man in whom King William had placed such confidence, 
and no one who had so well deserved it. The son of a 
Worcester attorney, he had risen to the post of Lord 
High Chancellor; yet he so conducted himself that he 
seemed born in the purple. He was remarkable for the 
gentleness of his manners and the benevolence of his 
disposition. His opinions were strongly Whig; yet he 
was always remarkable for the moderation of his coun- 
sels. His virtue and wisdom had raised up enemies 
against him. Towards the end of King William's reign 
it was discovered that he had lent money to a sea captain 
who became a pirate, and was well known as Captain 
Kidd. It was not proved that Somers knew of any evil 
intentions on the part of the sailor. But the storm 
against him raged so furiously that when King William 
made him a grant of Crown lands the feeling against 
him was renewed, and, as the easiest way of quieting 
the storm, Lord Somers was dismissed from office. He 
lived in dignified retirement, watching the course of 
public affairs. With or without office he was the leader 
and guide of the Whig party. 

Of the five members of the Junto, Charles, Earl 



126 The Age of Anne. a.d. 1705. 

of Sunderland, son-in-law of Marlborough, was the 
youngest, and had also the reputation of being the most 
violent Whig, When the two ministers, Marlborough 
and Godolphin were depending more and more upon 

the Whigs for support, the Junto stipulated 
Lord Sunder- t | iat Sunderland should be made a Secretary 

of State as the price of this support, and as a 
security that measures would not be introduced hostile 
to the principles of the Whigs The first ally that the 
Junto secured amongst the ministerialists was the 
Duchess of Marlborough. She was disappointed at the 
lukewarmness with which the Tories had carried out the 
war policy. She persuaded her husband, and then both 
of them urged the appointment of Sunderland upon the 
queen, who resisted long and strenuously. Sunderland 
received another office, that of ambassador at Vienna: 
but the pressure for the original appointment was con- 
tinued. Eighteen months later it was made, and marks 
a distinct point in the change of the ministry from Tory 
to Whig. 

An influence, however, was at work which was under- 
mining the Government. It was always said of Queen 

Anne that it was necessary for her to be 

under the influence of some stronger mind. 
While she was Princess Anne, as well as in the early part 
of her reign, her friend, her second self, was the Duchess 
of Marlborough. But the favourite's temper was im- 
perious, and she presumed upon the queen's friendship 
for her. Her own political views had by this time 
changed, but she could not bring the queen to alter her 
views so readily. The queen seems to have been pre- 
pared to discard her ancient friend, when she was pro- 
vided with another upon whom to lean. The duchess 
had placed about the queen's person a cousin of her own, 



a.d. 1708. The Fortunes of Parties. 127 

who was poor and in need. She never fancied that this 
act would prove hurtful to her own power. But Abigail 
Hill, the queen's waiting-woman, was a lady of quiet and 
pleasant manners, a great contrast to her cousin, the 
duchess. The first intimation of the decline of her 
power that the latter received was the intimation that 
Miss Hill had privately married Mr. Masham, a gentle- 
man of the queen's household, and that the queen her- 
self had been present at the marriage. 

Abigail Hill, or Mrs. Masham, as she must now be 
called, was not only a cousin of the Duchess of Marl- 
borough, she was also upon the other side 
cousin of a prominent Tory politician, Ro- the queen's 
bert Harley, whose influence with her was 
very strong. Accordingly the new favourite of the queen 
used all her power in favour of the Tory party, which 
was already preferred by the queen. This was not then 
merely a question of court intrigue, of a woman's private 
likings or dislikings, but a matter fraught with important 
political consequences. The influence of Mrs. Masham 
over the mind of Queen Anne led ultimately to the dis- 
missal of the Whig ministers and to the reversal of their 
war policy. It led to the ministry of Harley and Boling- 
broke, and to the peace of Utrecht. Thus it came to 
pass that "the insolence of one waiting-woman and the 
cunning of another" changed the fortunes of Europe. 

It must not, however, be supposed that these changes 
followed immediately, although in the same summer in 
which Mrs. Masham was married the queen took the 
first step in opposition to her ministers Without even 
asking their opinion or telling them, she appointed two 
bishops, men who were excellently fitted for the duties 
of their office, but were high Tories. 

But in the following year (1708), while the queen was 



128 The Age of Anne. a.d. 1708. 

turning more and more against the guidance of her 
ministers, she was compelled, in order to 
mimSry i s please them, to make changes in various 
made more offices, which were by no means agreeable 
to herself. While the ministry was not yet 
wholly Whig, and while Robert Harley was still a 
Secretary of State, and Henry St. John Secretary at War, 
a clerk in Harley's office was found guilty of treason- 
able correspondence with the French: an unsuccessful 
attempt was made to implicate Harley in the treason. 
Marlborough and Godolphin represented to the queen 
that Harley must be dismissed from office. When she 
refused, on the ground that Harley was a good Church- 
man, they declined to attend a meeting of the Council, 
and prepared even to resign their offices. The queen 
would have found it difficult to continue without the ser- 
vices of Marlborough; but she held the meeting of the 
Council, and, as was then the custom, presided herself. 
It was on a Sunday: as the queen entered the chamber 
there were black looks. Harley, however, opened his 
portfolio and began business. " I do not see how we 
can do anything," said one, "in the absence of my Lord 
Treasurer and my Lord General." It was evident that 
the other ministers would stand by Godolphin and Marl- 
borough, not by Harley. Soon afterwards Harley and 
St. John resigned 

During the autumn of this year the poor queen was 

much tried by the illness of her husband, whom she 

tenderly nursed. His illness was asthma. 

Cabinet After his death Somers was admitted to the 

government. 

ministry, being appointed to the office of 
President of the Council. It was evident now that the 
ministry was entirely Whig. It is a rule of modern 
English politics that all the members of a government 



\.d. 1708. The Fo7'tunes of Parties. 129 

shall belong to one party, that they shall prepare their 
measures in common, be jointly responsible for all mis- 
takes, and, as the expression runs, stand or fall together. 
This, which seems an axiom now, was not so regarded 
at the beginning of Queen Anne's reign. She herself 
wished to have a ministry recruited from the moderate 
men of both parties, what in modern political language 
is called a coalition. Her personal feelings had in this 
arrangement at first assigned the preponderance of 
power to the Tory, or, as she called it, the Church party. 
The course of events had shifted this balance. For the 
next two years there was a Cabinet entirely Whig, and 
this was followed by another entirely Tory. King 
George III. tried to form a government from both 
parties, but the experiment was not attended with suc- 
cess. There have also been other coalitions; but all 
have been unable to stand, and from the year 1708 
homogeneous party Cabinets have been the rule in Eng- 
land. A Cabinet is a Committee of the Privy Council, 
in which all the chief ministers have seats. Though an 
important element in English political life, its existence 
is not recognised by the law. 

Strange to say, it was almost exactly at the time when 
the Whigs had secured all the seats in the Cabinet that 
the causes which led to their ruin began to work. The 
alienation of the queen from the Duchess of Marl- 
borough was almost complete. It was said that at a 
public ceremonial the duchess spilt a glass of water, as 
if by accident, over the gown of her rival, and she was 
not again invited to Court. The Duke of Marlborough, 
fearful lest he should also lose the queen's 
favour, conceived the idea of having his Marlborough's 

' ° request to be 

appointment as Commander-in-Chief con- madeCom- 

- . ,...,... T . . ... m?nder-in- 

firmed to him for life. It is quite possible, chief for life. 



130 The Age of A tine. a.d. 1710. 

indeed, that his motive was patriotic, and that he 
may have desired the permanent appointment to 
secure the allegiance of his country to the cause of the 
Grand Alliance. He was warned by his friends that 
such an appointment was contrary to the constitution : 
and one of them, the Lord Chancellor, told him that he 
would not put the great seal to such a patent. Marl- 
borough persevered, and actually applied to the queen, 
who firmly and without hesitation refused. These events 
ought to have made Godolphin and his ministry careful. 
Yet their next step seemed most heedless. 

A not very wise clergyman, named Dr. Sacheverell, 

a college friend of Addison's, who though of Low 

Church parentage, had won himself a repu- 

Sacheverell's tation for extreme High doctrines, preached 

sermon. & r 

in London before the Lord Mayor and in 
Derby at the assizes two sermons in which he attacked 
the Revolution, maintaining that resistance to a king was 
never justifiable, and declaring that the Church was in 
danger " even in her majesty's reign." Not content with 
this general teaching, he alluded to Godolphin under a 
nickname borrowed from one of Ben Jonson's plays, of 
" Volpone," or "the Fox." His sermons were published, 
The matter was brought before the Cabinet, when its 
wisest members, such as Somers, were in favour of letting 
the sermons alone, or at best prosecuting the preacher 
in a court of law; others, however, and Godolphin 
most strongly, were for impeachment before the House 
of Lords. The result was that an important State trial 
was made out of this trumpery matter. Thinking him 
persecuted, people took the Doctor's side. He was 
condemned indeed when the impeachment came before 
the Lords, but his punishment was almost nominal, for 
he was only prohibited from preaching for three years, 



a.d. 1 710. The Fortunes of Parties. 131 

and his book was burnt by the hangman. As the con- 
demned clergyman travelled through England, his jour- 
ney was like a triumph. Crowds came forth to see him 
and to ask his blessing ; he was received everywhere 
with enthusiasm. 

Before this feeling had subsided there was 
a general election. With the Tory sympathy election, 
for Sacheverell was united a general weari- To ry . 

majority. 

ness of the war, and the result of the elec- Dismissal of 

Whigs. 

tions was the return of a powerful Tory 
majority. The queen gladly took advantage of it to get 
rid of her Whig ministers. The long services of Godol- 
phin, and a little later the distinguished services of Marl- 
borough, were repaid with almost ignominious dismissal. 
The Duchess of Marlborough, who had for some time 
been kept at a distance from Court, was dismissed from 
her office, and had to leave her apartments in St. James' 
Palace. She was so angry that she tore down the 
mantel-pieces and had the brass locks removed from the 
doors. 

The queen did not wish all her former ministers to 
resign. She pressed Somers to continue in office, for she 
said "he had never deceived her." Five times she gave 
back the seals into Cowper's hands. But they stood 
staunchly by their colleagues, and the new principle pre- 
vailed. A new government was formed under Harley 
and St. John 

The work of this new ministry remains to be narrated. 
One incidental result of the change was that 
the Occasional Conformity Bill, which had conformity 
for some time slept, was now passed almost BlU p^^ 6 - 
without opposition. 



132 The Age of Anne. a.d. 1710. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

FAG-END OF THE WAR. 

Of the two men who were now the leading advisers of 
the queen and acknowledged chiefs of the Tory party 

Harley was in the higher position, though 

Bolingbroke was really the abler man. Rob- 
ert Harley belonged to a Whig family; his father had 
even been put in prison on suspicion of being implicated 
in Monmouth's conspiracy. Entering Parliament for a 
Cornish borough immediately after the Revolution, Har- 
ley was very strongly opposed to the Tory party, which he 
afterwards joined. In William's reign he was elected 
Speaker of the House of Commons. When Godolphin 
was dismissed, his place as Lord High Treasurer was, at 
first, not filled up ; the office was put in commission, and 
Harley was appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer, but 
was practically Prime-Minister. Harley was neither 
eloquent nor a man of genius, but he possessed powers 
which have sometimes availed more than eloquence or 
genius— the arts of a courtier. He was more at home in 
the queen's antechambers than in either House of Par- 
liament. He was ambitious, unscrupulous, strong in 
worldly wisdom. 

An event which nearly cost him his life had the effect 
of increasing his popularity. A French refugee, who 

called himself the Marquis of Guiscard, had 
hisTife ° n made frequent proposals for descents upon 

the coast of France. Afterwards he had 
carried on intrigues with France. He was arrested, and 



A.D. 1 710. Fag-end of the War. 133 

under examination before the Council, when he suddenly- 
seized a penknife from the table and stabbed Harley 
with it. A scuffle ensued, in which the Frenchman was 
mortally wounded, and it was then found that Harley's 
wound was but slight. Great sympathy was expressed 
for Harley, and shortly afterwards the queen 
made him an earl, with the double title, Ox- Made E * rI 

' ' of Oxford. 

ford and Mortimer. She then raised him to 
the office of Lord High Treasurer. 

Henry St. John was a man of very different character. 
In that age, famous for its wits and its literary men, he 
could hold his own with any of them. He 
was very intimate with the chief authors of 
the day, especially with Pope and Swift, and the poet- 
diplomatist, Matthew Prior. He was an accomplished 
classical scholar, very eloquent, and renowned as an 
elegant writer. As a politician he was distrusted, and 
could never have kept his party together. He was bril- 
liant rather than safe. As a writer, he was very hostile 
to Christianity. It was nearly a year later than Harley's 
promotion that St. John was elevated to the __ . T 

r J Made Lord 

peerage, and he was then only made a Boimg- 
viscount. His title was Viscount Boling- 
broke. It is said that this inequality of rewards led to 
ill-will between these members of the same Government. 
It is probable that from their first acceptance of office 
they intended to put an end to the war, but they could 
not well publicly declare this intention ; and whilst they 
were still feeling their way, an event occurred which 
promised to provide them with an excellent excuse. The 
Emperor Joseph died; and his brother, the Archduke 
Charles, after due formality of an election Archduke 
and a delay of nearly six months, succeeded Charles 

. . _ , , becomes 

him as Emperor; so that it now became Emperor. 



134 The Age of Anne. a.d. 171 i. 

doubtful whether it would be in accordance with the 
views of the allies to continue a war which had been 
begun nominally in order to give him the crown of 
Spain. But such a feeling was gradual, not immediate. 
In order to secure the election at Frankfort from any 
fear of a French invasion, Eugene received orders from 
Vienna to withdraw with all his troops from the army 
under Marlborough in Flanders. Villars, the French 
marshal, had fortified his position with great care, and 
boasted that Marlborough could not pass 
Marlborough's mto France. He called his lines the Non 

last camprign. 

plus ultra. Marlborough, however, although 
the allied forces were weakened by Eugene's withdrawal, 
entered the Non plus ultra with ease. He then laid siege 
to Bouchain, and captured it; but these were the only 
military achievements of the allies during the year 171 1. 
Coming events were already casting their shadows before. 
The ministers planned an expedition against Quebec, 
and entrusted the command of it to Colonel Hill, the 
brother of Mrs. Masham, the queen's fa- 

Expedition . ,,.-?. ,. 

against vounte. It was thought that if this expedi- 

tion was successful, it would act as a coun- 
terpoise to the great achievements of Marlborough. 
But the fleet of transports was badly provided with sup- 
plies, and had great difficulties in procuring pilots 
skilled in the navigation of the dangerous seas at the 
mouth of the St. Lawrence. Unfortunately it met with 
a violent storm, and several of the ships were wrecked. 
The result was that the expedition returned to England 
a failure. 

Meanwhile negotiations had been secretly opened 
with France, as the ministers had determined on peace — 
in concert with the allies, if the allies preferred ; if not, 
v/ithout them — and upon terms as favourable for them- 



A. D. 1 7 1 1 . Fag-end of the War. 135 

selves as possible; but the consideration of terms was 
not to be allowed to stand in the way of peace. One 
obstacle it was necessary to remove. The 
great general who had won four great battles P, 15 ^ 06 of h 
for the cause, who had never besieged a 
town without taking it, who had been the heart and 
spirit of the alliance, must be sacrificed. To break the 
blow, the queen did him the honour of writing a letter 
with her own hand, dismissing him from all his em- 
ployments. The reason alleged was that an accusation 
had been made against him, that he had taken per- 
quisites from a Jew, who had contracted to supply the 
army with bread, and that during the ten years this 
allowance amounted to the sum of 63,000/. There was 
also a charge that Marlborough had deducted ih per 
cent, from the pay which England gave to foreign troops, 
and that this amounted, in the ten years, to no less 
than 177,000/. His letter of reply was very dignified. 
He made answer, first, that the payments were quite 
according to precedent, and, secondly, that he had taken 
the money, not for his private use, but to obtain secret 
intelligence about the enemy. There can be no doubt 
that this defence is perfectly satisfactory, but his oppo- 
nents were bent on his disgrace. 

Prince Eugene hastened to England to endeavour 
to prevent its falling away from the alliance. He was 
received with all civility and even cordiality, but no 
representations that he could make could have any 
effect in reinstating his old companion in arms. 
Within a year of Marlborough's disgrace, 
his old friend and colleague, Godolphin, GodUl °hin 
died at his house. Partly from sorrow, 
partly because of the unpopularity into which he had 
now fallen, Marlborough went abroad. 



136 The Age of Anne. a. d. 1711. 

The ministers, being determined to have a majority 
in both Houses of Parliament, strained the royal pre- 
rogative, and induced the queen to make 
we ve peei . twe i ve p eers# Some were eldest sons of 
peers, who would have become peers in the course of 
nature ; two were prominent lawyers ; one of them was 
Mr. Masham. All of course were Tories. When they 
appeared in the House, an opponent, alluding to their 
number, asked sarcastically whether they voted sepa- 
rately or by their foreman. 

Meanwhile the Duke of Ormond was appointed to an 

unpleasant post. It was difficult enough to succeed 

Marlborough as commander-in-chief, but it 

Ormond Com- " 

mandcr-in- must have been absolutely humiliating for 
him to hold that office, and yet to receive 
secret orders, tying his hands and bidding him do 
nothing. "A general of straw," he was called. As no 
one likes to be a dummy, the duke must have felt it a 
positive relief when an armistice between the English 
and the French was declared. He received orders to 
separate the troops in the pay of England from the army 
of the allies. But many of these troops, acting under 
orders from their own Governments, refused to obey, and 
he withdrew with the native English sol- 

beparat on . 

of English diers. Eye-witnesses have described the 
indignation with which the English soldiers 
and officers received the orders, and the shame with 
which they parted from their former comrades in so 
many fields. Ormond was followed by only 12,000 sol- 
diers. The smallness of this number points to the fact 
that England had been fighting in this war with money 
rather than with men. The number of native British 
soldiers was very small compared with the number of 
foreign mercenaries that England paid — Hessians, Pala- 



ad, 1712. Fag-end of the War. 137 

tines, and Germans of other small States, especially in 
the Rhine valley, where a century of wars, beginning 
with the terrible Thirty Years' War, had ruined their 
homes, and implanted in their breasts the love of a 
military life. 

Notwithstanding the departure of the English troops, 
Eugene was still at the head of an army of 100,000 men 
in an excellent position. His lines were 
called the '* road to Paris," because it seemed 
that when once he had taken Landrecies, a town which 
he was besieging, nothing could stop him from entering 
France. General alarm was felt in that country, and the 
king wrote to Marshal Villars that he trusted all to him, 
but that if defeat should await him, he himself would 
mass all his troops, and at their head perish or save the 
State. 

It is curious that King Lewis should have thought 
such extreme language necessary, when the alliance was 
breaking up, and deliverance was so near. Eugene's 
lines were so widely extended, that if one part were at- 
tacked it could not quickly receive succour from an- 
other. Villars made a feigned attack on Eugene's camp 
before Landrecies, and then, hurling all his 
strength upon Denain, there won a brilliant clinch at 

victory. It is said that Eugene himself came Denain, 

. , July 24, A.D. 

up in time to witness, but not to stop, the 1712. 
defeat. There can be no doubt that this 
battle had a great influence in determining the Dutch to 
make peace. They saw that, with the English troops, 
victory had departed. Eugene was compelled to raise 
the siege of Landrecies, and Villars retook three towns 
from the allies, one of them being Bouchain, the sole 
conquest of the previous year. 



1 38 The Age of Anne. a. d. 1712. 



CHAPTER XV. 

PEACE OF UTRECHT. 

In January 171 1 a messenger arrived from London at 
Paris, who, calling upon Torcy, the Minister for Foreign 
Affairs, began his conversation with these 
Peace at words : " Do you wish for peace, sir ? If so, 

I bring you the means of procuring it." "It 
was," says Torcy in his memoirs, " like asking a dying 
man whether he would wish to be cured." 

It is not necessary to describe in detail all the negoti- 
ations which had preceded and which followed this. 
After Ramillies and the year of victory, 
SoM°? ia ' terms had been indirectly offered by the 

r^ Ar er French, including the surrender of Spain to 

the archduke, on condition that Philip had 
Naples, Sicily, and Milan as a separate kingdom. 
Marlborough thought that the offer of France was in- 
sufficient, and would not allow it even to be made the 
basis of a conference. 

In 1709, after the defeat at Oudenarde and the cap- 
ture of Lille, the bad harvest, and the terrible frost, the 
position of Lewis was so much worse that 
(5) The h e was prepared to surrender even the con- 

dition of a monarchy for Philip. He was 
ready to accept all the terms of the allies laid down at 
the Conference of the Hague, except the article in 
which they insisted that, if his grandson did not resign 
the Spanish Crown, he should himself compel him by 
force of arms. 



a.d. 1711-13. Peace of Utrecht. 1 3 9 



Next year, after Malplaquet, the French king made 
another eifort. A conference was held at Gertruyden- 
burg, a small town near the mouth of the 
Waal, which place the Dutch rulers selected QJg^ 7 ' 
lest at any more important town the envoys 
might incline the natives towards peace. But the allies 
insisted on the same hard condition, and this conference 
was as abortive as that of the Hague. 

But, in January 171 1, for the first time, the proposals 
were made from the side of the allies, and not from that 
of France; and as Lewis was always well 
informed about the state of English parties, 
he began the new negotiations with quite a different hope. 
Terms which he would gladly have accepted in the pre- 
vious year he would not hear of now. The English 
ministry, thinking the allies intractable, were now ne- 
gotiating without them, and had signed the preliminaries 
even before Marlborough's disgrace and Ormond's ap- 
pointment. A congress was held at Utrecht, 
to which the allies at last consented to send Utrecht 

representatives. Diplomacy was very long- 
winded, but after many months the Peace of Utrecht 
was signed in March 171 3. 

There were several treaties made between the different 
belligerents, which, together, form what we call the Peace 
of Utrecht. Charles VI., the new Emperor, held out 
obstinately. He did not wish for peace, 
and was very angry with the allies, espe- Jfjffs^out 
daily with the English, that they were not 
willing to continue fighting his battles. But what could 
he do, single-handed ? He held out for _ , 

t Peace of 

nearly one year longer, but Villars vigor- Rastadt, 

ously turned his forces against him, and 

seized a town or two. Then, in the following spring, 




Fold-out 

Placeholder 



140 'The Age of Anne. a.d. 1713. 

the Emperor accepted the peace, which he could have 
enjoyed earlier. The peace between France and the 
Emperor personally was called after the town Rastadt, 
that between the French and the Empire after that of 
Baden. 

The Spanish monarchy — the main point in dispute — 

together with the vast American possessions, was left in 

the hands of Philip V. If the allies had 

The Spanish been fighting to take it from him, they had 

monarchy. o & > J 

missed their object. Solemn renunciation 
was, however, made by the King of Spain of all his 
claim to the French Crown, at least as long as he re- 
tained the Spanish Crown. Both Lewis and Philip swore 
that the Crowns of France and of Spain should never 
be united. Lewis swore, "on the faith, word, and hon- 
our of a king," that he would acknowledge Queen Anne 
and the Protestant succession, and that he would give 
no further assistance to the Pretender, but induce him to 
leave France. He agreed also to demolish the fortifica- 
tions and to fill up the harbour of Dunkirk. 

Though the English, seem to have regarded Dunkirk 
as a standing menace to their commerce, and to have 

eagerly desired this article, it was never car- 
Engiand'9 r j e( j out England was to keep Gibraltar 

gam. ° r 

and Minorca, but she promised that they 
should not be a place of refuge either for Moor or Jew. 
England also gained from France certain ice-bound ter- 
ritories in North America, which France did not value — 
the Hudson's Bay Territory, Newfoundland, and Nova 
Scotia. They were valuable as fishing grounds, and also 
for the fur-hunters ; but the French reserved in the treaty 
the right to fish. There had been, indeed, as many 
English as French settlements in these places, and per- 
haps more English settlers. The possession of the first 



a.d. 1713. Peace of Utrecht. 141 

two had been long in dispute; but Nova Scotia — called 
by the French Acadia — had been formally ceded to the 
French in the reign of Charles II. It is important to 
notice that, in this article, England was commencing a 
policy of colonial aggrandisement which brought later 
wars on her. England further obtained from Spain the 
Assiento contract, which France had before enjoyed, viz. 
the privilege of importing 4,800 negro slaves into 
America within thirty years. 

In addition to these treaties there was further proposed 
a treaty of commerce between England and France, 
but the House of Commons threw it out. It shows how 
-enlightened a statesman Bolingbroke could prove him- 
self, for it would have established free trade between 
England and France. Neither of the nations were to tax 
each other's manufactures, and each was to grant to the 
other whatever privileges it conferred on the most fa- 
voured nation. 

France, it may be seen, suffered little by the treaty, 
for she lost no territory, and was left with the same 
boundaries that she had reached in the year of the Eng- 
lish Revolution. Spain lost her possessions 
in Italy and in the Netherlands, of which pain s 
Milan, the Kingdom of Naples, and the Netherlands fell 
to Austria, while Sicily, which was afterwards exchanged 
for Sardinia, fell to the Duke of Savoy, who was further, 
indulged with the title of King. The Elector of Bavaria, 
France's luckless ally, was reinstated in his dominions 
and at the same time the Elector of Hanover was fully 
and finally recognised. 

Prussia, which a month before the treaty of Utrecht 
passed under the rule of its second king, famous in his- 
tory as the eccentric father of Frederick the 

' Prussia. 

Great, secured its own recognition as a king- 



142 The Age of Anne. a.d. 1713. 

dom by the King of France. Moreover, its territory of 
Orange was exchanged for land that lay more conve- 
nient in Guelderland. On the death of our William III. 
without children, his claim to Orange had passed to his 
sister, who married the first King of Prussia. The little 
principality of Orange was surrounded entirely by France, 
into which it was manifestly more convenient that it 
should now be swallowed up. Whether it belonged to a 
king of England or a king of Prussia, the French could 
at once overrun it with troops in case of war. 

Lastly, the Dutch obtained certain towns, and had the 
satisfaction of seeing the Netherlands in the hands of 
Austria, a barrier between them and France. 
It was not a very substantial result of all 
their efforts, but, if the English would not go on fighting, 
it was not in the power of the Dutch to obtain better terms. 
Holland, however, learnt the futility of engaging in 
wars like this, and henceforth pursued a policy of non- 
interference, and her influence declined in Europe. 

The Peace of Utrecht has been often criticised, and 
generally in a sense hostile to its promoters — the English 
ministry. It may be as well to express shortly the argu- 
ments on both sides. 

Those who supported it said that the war was becom- 
ing a great burden upon England ; that her 
for g Peace of national debt was growing to such an enor- 
Utrecht. mous size that posterity would not be able to 

pay it ; that in consequence of the peculiar spirit of the 
Castilians, Spain could never be conquered nor taken 
from Philip except at a terrible cost, and that English- 
men who did not want the Pretender had no right to 
force a king upon reluctant Spain ; that the terms of the 
treaty secured Europe from the danger of a union of the 
Crowns of France and Spain, indeed, that a similar 



A . d . 1713. Peace of Utrecht. 143 

danger was more to be feared on the other side, for the 
Grand Alliance was intended to prevent the union of the 
Spanish Crown with that of any other first-rate power, 
and that the Austrian claimant was now Emperor. 
France, therefore, being humbled and threatening no 
danger to Europe, if England continued to fight, she 
would be fighting the battles of her allies, not her own. 

To these arguments answer was made: Debt or no 
debt, commerce flourishes. France, which has been for 
half a century a source of danger, is now at 
our mercy. Her fortresses are broken down, Arguments 

* ' against it. 

and Marlborough has cleared his road to 
Paris. Let us bind her now, so that she never can be 
dangerous again. It will never be safe to have France 
and Spain under kindred kings. The Bourbons are all 
of a piece, and this Philip may yet succeed his grand- 
father. In such case renunciations are valueless ; we 
know that France always regards them as invalid. After 
all Marlborough's victories, the allies are wrong not to 
secure results more substantial. 

As the Peace of Utrecht ends the war, this is the 
right place to ask the question — was this a just and ne- 
cessary war ? And the answer must be that 

* General con- 

It was. We must place ourselves in the sideration 

position of the statesmen who knew Lewis 
and his ambition, or of the people who had suffered and 
seen others suffer from his encroachments. Even after 
the Peace of Ryswick, there can be no doubt that he was 
dangerous to the liberties of Europe. But as decidedly 
the war should have been ended earlier. Peace ought 
to have been made after the battle of Ramillies. The war 
would then have lasted four years instead of eleven, and 
much would have been saved. It was the heartfelt mis- 
trust of Lewis that made Marlborough, Eugene, and 



144 The Age of Antie. a.d. 1713. 

Heinsius, the Whig ministers in, England, and the Dutch 
statesmen, refuse to treat. But they could then have 
obtained the same terms that they secured afterwards, 
or better. From that time forward the allies were 
in the wrong, and at each negotiation, at the Hague and 
at Gertruydenburg, they plunged more deeply into it. 
After the disaster at Villa Viciosa, all claim on Spain 
should have been surrendered. The allies asked too 
much, and they were forced to take too little. For, that 
Bolingbroke and Oxford granted terms too easily, and 
mismanaged the negotiations, there is no manner of 
doubt. 

When peace was proclaimed in London there was a 

grand Te Deum in St. Paul's Cathedral, Handel's music 

probably being played. But the Te Deum 

raised by Lewis and his courtiers should 

have been louder, for in the Peace of Utrecht Lewis 

gained the most. 



CHAPTER XVI. 

THE UNION WITH SCOTLAND. 

Section I. — The Union itself. 

One of the most important works of Queen Anne's 
reign was the Union with Scotland. Until that was car- 
„ ,. ried out, Great Britain was divided into two 

Earlier 

attempts at unequal kingdoms, with the same sovereign, 
but in every other respect distinct. There 
was no real security that even the union under the same 
sovereign would be permanent, and that under different 
sovereigns the old hostility, perhaps even war, would 
not arise. Statesmen had therefore long wished that 



a. d. 1703. The Union with Scotland. 145 

the two kingdoms should be fused into one. Oliver 
Cromwell, who may be said to have anticipated the 
principle of Parliamentary Reform, also anticipated the 
Union, and summoned repiesentatives from Scotland to 
one assembly with those of England. But the Restora- 
tion overthrew his arrangement, and perhaps the 
memory of Cromwell's change caused in the times that 
followed a prejudice against any imitation of his policy. 
William III. had been strongly in favour of the change, 
but other matters had occupied his time and attention. 
In his last message to Parliament he had recommended 
the project of Union to the members. In the first year 
of the reign of Queen Anne commissioners were ap- 
pointed and met. But they were not in earnest about 
their work. It was often difficult even to procure the 
attendance of a quorum of the English commissioners, 
and so the matter dropped. 

A step of the Scottish Parliament, the passing of the 
Act of Security, made the absolute necessity of the 
Union evident not only to statesmen but to 
all thinking men in England. As Queen The Act of 

° & ^ Security. 

Anne was childless, steps had been taken 
even in her predecessor's reign to settle the devolution 
of the English crown. In the last year of William's life 
the Act of Settlement was passed, by which it was deci- 
ded that the sovereign of England must be a Protestant, 
and that in the case of the death of Anne without heirs, 
the crown should devolve upon the Electress Sophia, 
grand-daughter of James I., and upon her heirs who were 
Protestant. This measure excited no enthusiasm, and 
yet all parties in England seemed to acquiesce in it. In 
the Scotch Parliament no such bill was passed, but two 
years later the Act of Security was carried, the effect of 
which was quite opposite. It declared that, on the death 



Dtch 



146 The Age of Anne. A. d. 1704 

of the queen without issue, the Estates (that is, the Scotch 
Parliament) should name a successor from the Protestant 
descendants of the House of Stuart, but not the same 
as should succeed to the crown of England, unless cer- 
tain securities were given for the religion, freedom, and 
trade of Scotland. The Government, however, instruct- 
ed the queen's commissioner not to touch the Act with 
the sceptre. It did not therefore become law ; but the 
irritation in the Scotch Parliament was so strong be- 
cause of this refusal that the commissioner prorogued it 
without obtaining any subsidy. Next year (1704) the Act 
was passed again by the Parliament. Godolphin yielded 
to their persistency, and the measure became law. The 
effect, however, not on his mind only, but on that of 
almost all Englishmen, was that it was no longer safe to 
postpone the Union. 

In the summer of 1706 commissioners met in London, 

thirty-one from each kingdom. Lord Somers presided 

over their meetings : to his bland temper 

Commission anc [ moderating wisdom much of the success 

appointed. ° 

of their treating was due. Once or twice 
the queen attended at the deliberations to encourage the 
commissioners by her presence; and it was evident that 
they were animated by a different spirit from that of the 
first year of her reign. 

It is a law of physics that a larger body attracts a 
smaller. As England was three times as large, four 

times as populous, and probably forty times 
men a ts S pro- as rich as Scotland, it was evident that the 
posed. latter kingdom would have to adopt the con- 

stitution of the former. But the English commissioners 
were prepared to treat the Scotch in a liberal spirit. The 
doctrine that the minority must yield to the majority 
required that the English weights and measures and the 



A.d. 1706. The Union with Scotland. 147 

English coinage should be the standard for the United 
Kingdom. As, however, the Scotch might lose by these 
and similar changes, it was proposed that a sum of 
money should be paid by the English Parliament, to 
which the name of the Equivalent was given. Elabo- 
rate calculations were set on foot to fix its amount, which 
was ultimately settled at 400,000/. It was to be thus 
employed. All the debts of the kingdom of Scotland 
were to be paid off, and for this it was estimated that 
160,000/., or about a year's revenue of that kingdom, 
would be required. The shares of the Darien Company 
were to be bought up with a second portion, and the 
company then dissolved. A third portion was to recoup 
the losses caused by the change in the coinage. But 
when the gold arrived in Edinburgh, there was a riot, 
and the waggons that brought it were near being plun- 
dered. The people regarded it as a bribe. 

In England there was hardly any real opposition to 
the Union, but in Scotland there was a great deal. This 
may have been partly due to the anger of 
shopkeepers and citizens of Edinburgh, in- Opposition 
dignant that their beautiful city should cease 
to be a capital ; partly to that of members of Parliament, 
who would lose their importance when the capital went 
south. There was also a general feeling, strongest 
amongst the uneducated, but not confined to them, that 
Scotland was going to be placed in subjection to England. 
The ancient glory of their kingdom was departing. But 
the strongest feeling was aroused on the question of their 
religion: there was a general fear lest by union with 
England, which had an Episcopal Church, the Presby- 
terian constitution of the Scotch Church should be in 
danger. And to this feeling a sort of echo was heard in 
England when the High Churchman seemed to regard 



148 The Age of Anne. a.d. 1706. 

it as unworthy to ally themselves with a Presbyterian body. 
It was determined that no change should be made in 
either Church ; and Acts of Parliament were passed, both 
by the Scotch and by the English Parliaments, to secure 
that each Church should preserve its constitution and its in- 
dependence. There was to be one State, but two Churches. 
The Scotch share of the land tax was fixed at one- 
fortieth. If taxation had been taken as the basis of 
representation, the Scotch would not have 
Represen- been allowed more than thirteen representa- 

tation. 

tives in the House of Commons. But it was 
felt that this number was insufficient, considering the 
population and the ancient reputation of the northern 
kingdom. After some negotiation the number was fixed 
at forty-five. Of these thirty were assigned to shires, 
fifteen to towns. Edinburgh had a member to itself. 
Sixty-six other boroughs formed fourteen groups. No 
shire had more than one member, nor has this system 
been altered by later reforms. The total number of 
forty-five has been increased to sixty, eight having been 
added by the great Reform Bill in 1832, and seven more 
by the Reform Bill of 1867. This number of sixty is now 
divided thus— shires, 32 (two or three shires being di- 
vided, but still having only one member for each 
division) ; towns, 26 (Glasgow having three members, 
Edinburgh and Dundee two each) ; and two being as- 
signed to the Universities in two groups of two each. 
The Scotch peers and representatives sat in one house. 
Henceforward they would follow the practice of Eng- 
land, and sit in two. The number forty-five formed 
one-twelfth of the enlarged House of Commons of the 
United Kingdom. This proportion was therefore adopted 
for the Upper House also. Sixteen peers were to be 
elected as representatives for each Parliament. It was 



A.D. 1707. 'J he Union with Scotland 149 

decided that no more peers of Scotland should be made. 
The peers who were not representatives were not allowed 
to sit in the Lower House either for English or Scotch 
constituencies, and an old Scotch restriction that the 
eldest sons of Scotch peers could not be elected was re- 
tained. This latter, however, was repealed in 1832. 

The Scotch law and administration of justice was to 
remain unchanged. In many important points, notably 
in the law of marriage, there is still a. wide 
difference between the Scotch and English 
law, the former following the old Roman law. 

Other matters caused less difficulty. It was easily 
settled that the national flag should be formed by a 
junction of the crosses of St. George and 
St. Andrew. This was a flag which James I. 
had tried to introduce upon succeeding to the English 
throne, but without success. Henceforward it became 
the flag of which both nations are proud, under the name 
of the Union Jack. At the Union with Ireland this flag 
underwent a further change, the red cross of St. Patrick 
being laid upon the white cross of St. Andrew. The 
arms of the two countries, the three lions of England 
and the lion rampant of Scotland were to be quartered 
according to the laws of heraldry. A new seal was to 
be made. This United Kingdom was to receive the 
name of Great Britain. 

This scheme, which was drawn out by the commis- 
sioners in 1706, met with much opposition in the Scotch 
Parliament. But it was firmly maintained and eventu- 
ally carried in 1707. It is said that bribery was exten 
sively used, as was certainly the case at the Union with 
Ireland nearly a century later, but this charge has been 
investigated and disproved. If there was any bribery, 
it was on a very small scale. 



150 The Age of Anne. a.d. 1707. 

In spite of the opposition then made to the Union, an 

opposition which died away only gradually in the minds 

of Scotchmen, there has not for generations been even 

a semblance of a wish for a repeal of the 

Results 

Union. This cannot be said for the Union 
with Ireland ; and if the proof of the goodness of political 
work is the way that it stands the test of time, no work 
of the kind was ever so effectively accomplished. No act 
of the Government of Queen Anne so "much deserves the 
honour and respect of succeeding generations, whether 
English or Scotch. England was strengthened by having 
a warm ally instead of a lukewarm neighbour, who might 
prove a dangerous foe. Scotland shared in the prosperity 
which she had often envied, acquired a large share of 
commerce, and yet did not lose the separate features of 
the Scottish character or in any way smother the indi- 
vidual glory of her historic memories. 

It may be well to add a note on the difference between 
the Union with Ireland and that with Scotland with re- 
spect to the peerage. No more Scotch peers 

Compared r j i ■ 

with Union were to be created, and no Scotch peer is 

with Ireland. . % . •, . ,, TT e ~ 

permitted to sit in the House of Commons. 
In the Irish peerage, one new peer may be created for 
every three peerages that become extinct, and an Irish 
peer may sit in the House of Commons, but not as re- 
presentative of an Irish constituency. Ireland has now 
105 members in the House of Commons, and 28 repre- 
sentative peers. The total number of Scotch peers is 
now 82, of Irish, 185; but of these so many are also 
peers of the United Kingdom, that only 26 Scotch and 
80 Irish noblemen are without seats in the House of 
Lords. In the Union with Scotland, moreover, the two 
national Churches were kept distinct, whilst in that with 
Ireland they were united. But in the latter case the 






/v.D. 1707. The Union with Scotland. 151 

Churches were alike Protestant and Episcopalian. The 
injustice rather consisted in the fact that the dominant 
Church in Ireland was not the Church of the people, a 
very large majority of whom were Roman Catholics. It 
is certainly a fact that requires notice, that whilst the 
Scotch do not desire a repeal, the Irish as a nation do. 

Section II. — Attempt for the Pretender. 

The immediate unpopularity of the Union in Scotland 
suggested to the minds of the Jacobites that an attempt 
might be made in that country in favour of 
the Pretender. An avowed Jacobite, Colo- Jacobite 

J rising. 

nel Hooke, moved about the country sound- 
ing other Jacobites, and returned to Versailles when he 
had obtained promises that a force of 30,000 men should 
rise in Scotland, if only Lewis would send a French 
army to form a nucleus. Lewis, not unmindful of the 
ancient friendship between Scotland and France, as- 
sented. He may have known that in the present state 
of Scotch feeling there was a good chance of success, 
or that at any rate a diversion would be created in the 
war, and that possibly Marlborough, certainly some of 
Marlborough's army, would be recalled from the Nether- 
lands. The Jacobite cause had always more supporters 
in Scotland, especially in the Highlands, than in Eng- 
land. The feeling of loyalty was encouraged by the clan 
system : the Stuarts were a Scotch family. 

James Francis Edward, son of James II. and Mary 
of Modena, was born in 1688, the year of the Glorious 
Revolution. Indeed his birth may be 
counted one of the immediate causes of that Pretender 
Revolution, for as long as James his father 
had no son, the English people felt that, however tyran- 
nous his reign might be, upon his death the tyranny 



1 5 2 7 lie Age of A nne. a. d. 1707. 

would be overpast ; for his daughters, Mary and Anne, 
following the religion of their mother, were Protestanti 
and members of the Church of England. When this 
prince was born, all was changed. He would be brought 
up, men said, in the religion of both his parents: a 
long line of Roman Catholic sovereigns stretched itself 
before the eyes of their excited imaginations. King 
James, moreover, had unwisely not taken the usual 
steps on the birth of an heir to the throne. The high 
officials of State and Church, whose duty it is to be 
present, were not invited. A story, therefore, for which 
there is no evidence except this omission, and which has 
long been abandoned even by the strongest opponents 
of the House of Stuart, gained credence, that this prince 
was no prince at all, but that he had been brought into 
the royal bedchamber in a warming-pan. In honour 
of this belief it is recorded that on his birthday in each 
year, whilst Jacobites wore white roses in their button- 
holes, staunch Whigs wore little farthing warming-pans. 
This young prince it was whom Lewis XIV. had 
promised the exiled James upon his death-bed that he 
would recognise as King of England : which promise 
had drawn this long war upon his head. At St. Ger- 
main's, the place which Lewis had granted to James and 
to his family, he had been brought up as a Catholic 
prince, and amidst the despotic ideas of the Court of 
Lewis. He was not trained to acquiescence in the exile 
of his house. All around him called him King of Eng- 
land; and he certainly made it the object of his life to 
become king in reality. In English history, to distin- 
guish him from his son, he is known as the Old Preten- 
der. But a title which friend or foe alike might give 
him, and which was therefore used in negotiations with 
the French Court, was the Chevalier de St. George. That 



a.d. 1707. The Union with Scotland. 153 

he was not deficient in personal bravery he had no 
opportunity in this attempt to show ; but he showed it 
afterwards when fighting (one might think somewhat 
unwisely), against his countrymen at the battles of 
Oudenarde and Malplaquet. He was now nearly twenty. 
The French force that King Lewis was going to send 
to aid him consisted of five men-of-war with transports, 
conveying about 4,000 soldiers. Just as it 
was about to sail from Dunkirk, when se- Failure of 

attempt. 

crecy and speed were all-important to such 
an expedition, the young prince fell ill of the measles. 
The ships could not start without him. During the delay 
the English Government received information, and sent 
Admiral Sir George Byng with a fleet of fifteen ships 
which blockaded Dunkirk. The army in Scotland was 
small, but large forces were collected at York. Byng's 
fleet was driven from its moorings by high winds, and the 
French ships escaped. When they appeared off the 
coast of Scotland, signals were made according to agree- 
ment, but the Jacobites on shore made no answer to the 
signals. The French admiral thereupon insisted upon 
returning. He had received positive orders not to risk 
a landing unless there was a rising of the Jacobites to 
co-operate with the French troops. The Chevalier and 
many of those with him wished very much to land to try 
the effect of their presence, confident that his friends 
would rise then if not before. The French admiral re- 
turned, however, to France as quickly as possible, for 
Byng's ships had followed, and were close behind him. 
They caught the rearmost of his vessels, but the others* 
escaped. As the result of this attempted rebellion, to be 
followed after seven, and again after thirty seven years, 
by others, which were more successful for a time, and 

finally more disastrous, two bills were passed through 
M 



154 The Age of Anne. a.d. 1707. 

Parliament, one a temporary suspension of the Habeas 
Corpus Act, so that the Government might be enabled to 
arrest people upon suspicion ; the other, a law that a 
Justice of the Peace might make anyone appear before 
him and take an oath abjuring the Pretender. 

It is as well to notice that though this attempt was a 
miserable failure, its chance of success was probably bet- 
ter than either in the Fifteen or in the Forty- 
Its chance fi ve Rebellion. The attack of measles and 

of success. 

the unpreparedness of the Jacobites on shore 
were fortunate for the United Kingdom. At that time, 
it must be remembered, the feeling of irritation against 
the Union was exceedingly strong in Scotland, and Eng- 
land was engaged in agreat Continental war which taxed 
her strength. Time was the healer of the first wound. 
Against this we must set the reflections that in the rebel- 
lion against George I. the house was new to the throne, 
and that even by the reign of his son it had done nothing 
to gain the affections of the people. After the accession 
of George III., "born and bred a Briton," not "an Eng- 
lishman,'' there is no more suspicion of disloyalty in 
Scotland. 



CHAPTER XVII. 

PETER THE GREAT AND CHARLES XII. 

Section I. — The North Eastern State-System. 
In the north-east of Europe there was a group of coun- 
tries which, though not without influence upon the his- 
tory of the rest of Europe, for nations can- 
Fastem not live separate lives without intercourse 

System. with their neighbours, may yet be regarded 

as forming a separate State System. This 



Peter the Great and Charles XII 155 

group must not, however, be left undescribed, partly on 
account of this connexion, but more especially on ac- 
count of the remarkable character of two monarchs, one 
of whom influenced the future of his own country, and, 
through it, of Europe, to an extent which has been grant- 
ed to few in the whole course of history. 
This State System consists of Denmark, Round the 

J ' Baltic. 

Poland, Sweden, and Russia. Just as the 
nations that occupy the stage of what we call ancient 
history are grouped around the Mediterranean Sea, so 
are these nations gathered round the Baltic. 

Of the four, Russia had as yet no territory on the 
shores of the Baltic, but she had already turned her 
eyes in that direction, seeing the advan- 
tage which a footing on the coast would give. 
Her rulers had already shaped their policy ; her oppo- 
nents, notably the famous Gustavus Adolphus, had 
planned resistance to it. Poland had two provinces, 
West Prussia and Livonia, on the coast of the Baltic. 
She had also a feudal suzerainty over two others. 

The three countries, Denmark, Poland, Sweden, had 
for about two centuries preserved a balance of power in 
the Baltic basin. At one time one of them 
would be stronger, then another. Of the 
three, Denmark was now the least important. Nearly 
two centuries had elapsed since it had been at the height 
of its power, but its territory was still much larger than 
that which it has to-day. The kingdom of Norway was 
under its crown, and the duchies of Schleswig and Hol- 
stein had the King of Denmark for their duke, an ar- 
rangement which remained in force until the Danish war 
of 1864. Yet, although separately Denmark was not to 
be feared by its neighbours, it might become important 
at any time as a factor in a combination. 



156 The Age of Anne. 

Sweden, also, had passed the epoch of her greatest 
power, but very substantial results remained 
behind. Not only did she hold all the coun- 
try which is now Sweden, but also the province of Fin- 
land, on the east of the Gulf of Bothnia, which had long 
been hers, but which now belongs to Russia ; and in 
Germany, upon the other side, to the south of the Baltic, 
she still held part of Pomerania. The period of Swe- 
den's greatest power was during the two years when her 
king, Gustavus Adolphus, placed himself at the head of* 
the Protestants of Germany, and turned back the tide of 
defeat from the Protestant cause. Whatever may have 
been his motives, and those who have studied his history 
most are agreed to place them very high, the aggrandise- 
ment of his country was certainly the result of his cam- 
paign. During the remainder of the century Sweden 
was looked upon as the chief Protestant power in Europe. 
England, indeed, alone of other States, was capable of 
disputing the position. Under Cromwell, England was 
the chief Protestant State, and Cromwell valued the 
alliance of Sweden. In the reign of Charles II., when 
the counsels of Sir William Temple prevailed over baser 
counsels for a short year, and England determined again 
to assume that position, it was Sweden that with Holland 
joined England in the Triple Alliance, the mere forma^ 
tion of which was sufficient to bring France to terms. 
Sweden, however, did not join the Grand Alliance, prob- 
ably because she felt that she had work to do nearer 
home ; by that time, moreover, her influence in Europe 
was beginning to wane. 

The kingdom of Poland had large territory, and yet 
did not exercise much influence on the politics of Europe. 
„ , . The reason for this is to be sought in the 

Poland. ° 

nature of its government. Poland was an 



Peter the Great and Charles XII 



157 



Elective Monarchy. During the fifteenth and sixteenth 
centuries the monarchy had been nominally elective but 
really hereditary. But on the extinction of the house of 
Jagellon, which during that time had been on the throne, 
the nominal character of the monarchy became real. At 
each vacancy of the throne there had been the form of 
an election by the Diet, but after 1572 this form became 
a reality. The evils to which an elective monarchy is 
liable showed themselves in Poland. All the nobles had 
a right to elect, and all the sons of nobles were nobles 
themselves. A hundred thousand armed men appeared 
on horseback at the elections. The candidates, before 
election, pledged themselves to increase the privileges of 
their electors, until all the kingly power was given away, 
and Poland became what has been well termed a demo- 
cracy of nobles. Foreign powers also interfered and 
used every means in their power by bribery, corruption, 
intimidation, to influence the elections. Defeated candi- 
dates raised up factions : and ultimate dismemberment 
of Poland, after two centuries of this experience, how- 
ever unjustifiable on the part of those engaged in it, was 
the natural fruit of the form of its government, and of 
the conduct of its own nobility. 

Of the four nations forming the north-eastern group, 
Russia, though on the eve of a forward start which would 
in an incredibly short space of time make it 
a first-rate power in Europe, was the least 
known. It was usually called Muscovy, from the name 
of its capital city. It possessed very little of European 
civilisation. The often quoted phrase of Napoleon — " If 
you scrape a Russian, you will find a Tartar," which 
means that under a superficial European polish the 
Russian is still at heart an Asiatic, would, before the ac- 
cession of Peter the Great, have required the modification 



158 The Age of Anne. a.d 1689. 

of omitting the first clause. The superficial polish was 
not there. Few in the West of Europe knew anything 
about Russia. It was not an element in the calculations 
of statesmen. The Russians in return knew nothing 
about Europe. They were a nation of uncivilised bar- 
barians closely connected with Asia, slightly connected 
with Europe. The Russian empire had spread only in 
the direction of the north and east. At the accession of 
Peter it had none of the coast line either on the Baltic or 
the Black Sea. Yet Peter's predecessors had already 
begun to covet it. There is extant a letter by Gustavus 
Adolphus, in which he showed that Russia would become 
iormidable, a dangerous neighbour to Sweden, if it held 
certain places which he regarded as the keys of the 
Baltic. He thought he had taken measures sufficient to 
secure these from falling into the hands of the Russians. 
It certainly is a tribute to his foresight that those very 
places stand about St. Petersburg. 

The rise of Russia to a prominent place amongst 
European kingdoms, however the way may have been 
prepared for it, was due to one man, Peter the Great, 
whose character and work we proceed to describe. 

Section II.— Peter the Great. 

Peter's father was married twice. He had two sons by 
the first marriage — Feodor, a delicate invalid, and Ivan, 
who was half an idiot, besides several daugh- 
ters, of whom the most remarkable was the 
Princess Sophia, an ambitious and talented woman ; by 
the second marriage, he had only Peter and one daughter. 
When Feodor succeeded his father, Sophia obtained all 
the real power in the State, and when he died, after a 
short reign, she managed still to preserve power as regent 
and guardian of her two brothers. Lest Peter should 






A.d. 1689. Peter the Great and Charles XII. 159 

wrest it from her, she did her best to stunt his education ; 
she dismissed the tutor in whom his father 
had placed confidence, and surrounded him sionto 
with worthless companions. But it was all P ower - 
in vain. When he was nearly seventeen, the party in 
the State who were opposed to his sister encouraged 
him to throw off her tyrannous regency. He sent her 
into a convent, and her advisers into exile. This was in 
1689, the year after the English Revolution. 

Peter owed nothing to education. But by the mere 
force of genius, on taking up the reins of power, he im- 
mediately saw the state of his country, and 
made up his mind to reform it. He recog- 1S po ,cy ' 

nised that Russia was backward as compared with 
European nations ; and his policy, conceived at the 
first and resolutely followed, may be summed up in the 
one phrase that he wished to make Russia European. 
With this object he sent many of his subjects abroad, to 
study how Russia could learn improvements from the 
other nations of Europe, and after a time he determined 
to travel himself. 

We know his appearance almost as well as if he lived 
in our own days, so often has it been described. He 
was very tall and had the figure of a power- 
ful, strong man. His features were strongly H,s a PP ear " 

» o j ance. 

marked, a fine, massive forehead over which 
great clusters of jet-black hair would hang, massive brows, 
from under which his black eyes flashed, now fierce, 
now piercing, as if he would read the very secrets of the 
heart. His mouth gave tokens of power. His smile was 
very gracious, but his frown terrible to behold. When 
at rest there was majesty about his face ; but at times a 
troubled, nervous look would come over it, then would 
follow a wild twitch of face and of hands, then a convul- 



160 The Age of Anne. a.d. 1697. 

sion during which he was ungovernable. This seems to 
have been hereditary ; he tried to conquer it, but never 
could. 

His visit to England was well remembered. In his 
travels, the countries that he most wished to 
see were England and Holland, for he de- 
sired to make Russia a maritime power, and he thought 
that from these two countries he could learn useful 
lessons. There was something very far-sighted in this 
desire, for in the whole of his dominions 
Desire for a there was only one port, Archangel, and that 
was in a sea which was inaccessible for half 
the year. The Russian navy had to be created from the 
very beginning, for there was not, as yet, a single ship. 
Moreover, owing to an accident which he had suffered 
when a child, he had a great distaste, almost amounting 
to a nervous horror, of water. But he conquered this so 
completely that, in a storm, he once was able by his 
calmness to quiet the terrified seamen. " Fear not ! 
Who ever heard of a Czar being lost at sea?" 

He visited Holland first, and there, in the dockyards 
of Zaandam, he worked with his own hands as a ship's 
carpenter. He lived as the other workmen, 
and worked very hard. Thus he learnt the 
arts of shipbuilding and navigation. After nine months 
in Holland he passed on to London. At first he lived in 
a house in Norfolk Street which overlooked 
the Thames. He was anxious to see every- 
thing in England, but he did not wish to be seen him- 
self. At the theatre he witnessed the play from the very 
back of his box, screened from public gaze by his at- 
tendants. He looked down upon a sitting of the House 
of Lords through a small window, where the king and 
the lords saw him and burst out laughing. When he 



A.D. 1698. Peter the Great a?id Charles XII. 161 

went to the king's palace, he was admitted at a back 
door. He " went privately to Oxford, but, being soon 
discovered, he immediately came back to London with- 
out viewing those curiosities he intended." He moved 
from London to Deptford, where he occupied the house 
of John Evelyn, an English gentleman of letters, who 
has left a diary that gives considerable insight into the 
social life of his day. He says that the Czar and his 
people were "right nasty " in their habits. At Deptford 
Peter spent his time as at Zaandam. But neither in 
England nor in Holland did he confine himself to the 
work of a ship's carpenter. He was making inquiries 
about State matters, about laws and law courts, about 
religious matters. He was inducing Englishmen, Scotch- 
men, Dutchmen, to settle in Russia, and take their skill 
with them. He visited Sweden and Brandenburg, and 
returned to his dominions after an absence of about a 
year and a half. 

The most significant of all Peter's reforms was the 
removal of the capital. The traveller from Moscow to 
the shores of the Baltic sets his face west- 
ward. Peter was looking to the west for his 
model, and wished Russia to be European and no longer 
Asiatic. The old associations of Moscow drove him 
from it: the connexion with Europe enticed him to the 
Baltic. But it well illustrates the power of Peter over 
his subjects that he could make them quit their old 
capital. For the Russians loved Moscow with peculiar 
love. They call it still "the City of God," they reverence 
it as their " Holy Mother." At the first sight of its towers 
and pinnacles the Russian pilgrim falls upon his knees in 
awe. Yet, notwithstanding this affection and the conse- 
quent opposition of nobles, citizens, and priests, Peter 
carried out his plan. Nor was he even deterred by the 



iGi The Age of Anne a. d. 1700. 

physical difficulty of his task. The ground on which 
Petersburg is built was a marshy swamp. The city 
had to be built on piles, like a Dutch city. Thousands, 
it is said, lost their lives during the building, but Peter 
did not hesitate, and Petersburg, called after his own 
name, stands as a monument of his firmness. 

The alteration of the calendar also was 
Change in another of Peter's reforms. The Russians 

calendar. 

hitherto had dated from the creation, but 
he adopted the system in use in the rest of Europe. It 
is to be noted that the Russians still reckon by the old 
style. 

Peter the Great was a reformer in ecclesiastical as 
well as in political matters. He abolished the Patri- 
archate, thus making the union of Church 
Abolishes an( j state complete. Hitherto the Patriarch 

Patriarchate. r 

had power over the Church as despotic as 
that of the Czar over the State. Henceforth there was 
to be but one head. On the death of the last Patriarch 
he kept the see unfilled ; and when the priests, disconso- 
late at seeing the vacant chair, asked him to appoint 
another, he said " I will be your Patriarch." 

Even the fashions of Europe were to be imitated by 
his subjects. The habit of shaving the beard, the 
smoking of tobacco, the very shape of 
dresses, the bringing the women out of 
seclusion, all of these he forced upon his reluctant 
people. There was so much resistance to the fashion 
of shaving that at length a tax was imposed upon those 
who wished to retain their beards, and a medal, bearing 
a head ornamented with beard and whiskers,' was given 
as a token that the tax had been paid. Tobacco-smok- 
ing was not unknown in Russia before, having been in- 
troduced by English merchants at Archangel. The 



a.d. 1700. Peter the Great and Charles XIL 163 

chief opposition to it was raised by the priests, on the 
ground that " not that which goeth into a man but that 
which cometh out of a man dcfileth him." Patterns of 
dresses were hung up at the entrance to a town, and the 
inhabitants were to be punished if their clothes were 
not cut in accordance with the Government pattern. 
But the social change which did most mischief was his 
determination that the women were to be drawn from 
their Oriental seclusion, a change for which they were 
wholly unprepared, and which, coming suddenly, could 
only do them harm. 

The most important of his domestic reforms was the 
institution of the Tchin. From early times there has 
been a powerful hereditary nobility in Rus- The Tchin 
sia. A custom had almost grown into a law a bureau- 

cracy. 

that no man whose ancestor had held a 
higher place than the ancestor of another man could 
serve under him without a stain upon his honour. The 
inconvenience of such a custom is manifest. Peter's 
predecessor had caused all the nobles to bring the records 
of their genealogies as if to compare them, and had then 
publicly burnt them. This was a severe blow to the prin- 
ciple of hereditary nobility ; but Peter substituted for it 
an official nobility, called the Tchin, publishing a table 
of fourteen degrees, civil and military, by which all 
questions of rank were to be decided, the lower grades 
being duly subordinate to the higher. Thus he substi- 
tuted what is called a Bureaucracy for an Aristocracy. 

On his return from his first journey Peter found a for- 
midable conspiracy against his authority. He put it down 
with great severity, actually assisting with 
his own hands at the execution of the con- P e .. 

btrehtzes. 

spirators. A corps of troops called the 

Strelitzes, holding a position of great importance in the 



164 The Age of Anne. a.d. i 



697. 



State somewhat analogous to that of the Praetorians at 
Rome, formed the centre of this conspiracy. Peter abol- 
ished the corps. 

With the help of artisans from Holland and England 
he created a navy. When a child he delighted in a little 
boat which he saw upon the river that flows through 
Moscow. He made that little boat the germ of the Rus- 
sian navy. He christened it " the Little Grandsire," and 
had it removed to Petersburg. 

Section III.— Charles XII. 

Of the States which formed the North-Eastern State 
System, there is no doubt that at the end of the seven- 
teenth century Sweden was the most power- 
Charles XII. f u i # j ts very power, and the fact that the 
A. D. 1697. J r . 

power was of recent growth, excited the ani- 
mosity of its neighbours ; and when, in 1697, Charles 
XII. succeeded his father, at the early age of fifteen, 
they thought that they saw their opportunity. Each one 
of the neighbours wanted some part of the Swedish do- 
minions. The Czar Peter wanted the Baltic 
Provinces, without which it would be impos- 
sible for him to keep up intercourse with Western Europe- 
Frederick Augustus the Strong, Elector of Saxony and 
King of Poland, wanted to rescue the Provinces of Livo- 
nia and West Prussia, which had formerly belonged to 
Poland, but had been wrested from her by the Swedes. 
Frederick, King of Denmark, wanted Holstein. The 
Duke of Holstein was brother-in-law of Charles of Swe- 
den, as well as his boon companion ; in spirit similar to 
Charles, he had been his associate in every mad exploit. 
Holstein, as was natural, stood under the protection of 
Sweden, although not part of the dominions of Charles. 
These three neighbours formed a league ; from different 



A.d. 1697. Peter the Great and Charles XII. 165 

quarters they were to make a simultaneous attack on 
Sweden. 

According to his father's will, Charles was to remain 
for some time under a regency. But the States met and 
declared him no longer a minor, although 
he was only fifteen. Until the arrival of the ^reign. 81 ° f 
news of the triple league which had been 
formed against him, he was contented to allow the Coun- 
cil of Regency to govern for him. He sat at the council 
table — some say " on it " — but appeared to take no in- 
terest in the the business transacted. But when the news 
was brought that the league had been made against him, 
he suddenly said: — "I am resolved never to begin an 
unjust war, nor to finish a just one except by the destruc- 
tion of my enemies. My resolution is fixed. I will at- 
tack the first who declares against me, and, having con- 
quered him, I shall be able to strike terror into the 
others." 

The inert beginning of his reign was, indeed, no clue 
to the extraordinary character of this young prince. He 
was very self-willed, and had apparently set 

,. .,,,/- 1. • 1 ■ His character. 

his aims clearly before him quite early in 
life. When he was a boy, Q. Curtius was his favourite 
author, Alexander the Great his favourite hero. To 
play the part of Alexander, in the altered circumstances 
of the world, was his ambition. It has been well said 
he was not Alexander, but he should have been Alex- 
ander's first soldier. Among his predecessors, Gustavus 
Adolphus was the one whose career he wished to imitate, 
especially in the two glorious years when he was victo- 
rious arbiter of the fortunes of Germany. But he differed 
from Gustavus, in that he made military glory the end 
rather than the means of his ambition. Napoleon the 
Great denied the right of Charles even to the title of a 



1 66 The Age of Anne. a.d. 1697. 

great general. He was certainly a born soldier. He 
loved fighting. He loved danger. He said the noise 
of musket balls was the sweetest of music to him. He 
could endure all hardships, hunger, cold, fatigue. The 
pleasures and the splendour of a court had no attraction 
for him. He was simple, almost mean, in his attire, 
Spartan in his way of life. But he was self-willed and 
headstrong, and would not take advice. It is said that 
at his coronation he snatched the crown from the hands 
of the Archbishop, and placed it himself upon his head. 
It had been agreed that the attack of his three oppo- 
nents should be simultaneous, but either their arrange- 
ments were imperfect, or the quickness of 
He fights Charles defeated them. He kept his word 

Denmark. r 

and attacked the first who invaded his ter- 
ritory. He began with Denmark, whose king was in- 
vading Holstein. Charles himself attacked Copenhagen, 
and in six weeks the King of Denmark was at his feet, 
promising to leave Holstein unmolested, and to quit the 
alliance. 

Frederick Augustus the Strong was the second. He 
could not persuade the Polish nobility to bear any part 

in the invasion, and was therefore obliged to 
The King of f a r[ back upon his hereditary dominions, his 

subjects in which were not so independent. 
The unfortunate Saxons had no interest in the war, but 
they were obliged to submit. The inhabitants of the 
provinces which he wished to recover were not pleased 
to see his army, and kept quickening his footsteps. He 
had just commenced besieging Riga, when he found 
that the victorious Charles was coming against him, and 
he hastily retreated. 

He then turned towards the Czar Peter, who was 
laying siege to the town of Narva. His army was in- 



A. D. 1700-6. Peter the Great and Charles XII 167 

trenched and defended with 140 pieces of 

cannon. Charles's army amounted only to Russians at 

' _ J .Narva, 1700. 

8,000 men, whereas that of Peter consisted 
according to some accounts of ten times the number, 
according to his own account, of about 45,000. But the 
Swedes had still the admirable discipline of Gustavus 
Adolphus, whilst very few of the Russians had any dis- 
cipline at all ; they were raw recruits, serfs, fresh from 
the woods, who had never smelt powder. On the day 
before the attack of the Swedes, Peter left the camp 
to hasten the arrival of some reinforcements. The Rus- 
sian officers were angry that he left a foreigner in com- 
mand ; there was a spirit of mutiny among the Russian 
troops, and the whole army, in spite of its intrench- 
ments, fell an easy prey to Charles. The battle was 
fought during a snow-storm, and there seems to have 
been a good deal of confusion in the Russian ranks. 

But the ease with which he won the battle of Narva 
was the cause of Charles' ruin. Thinking that he could 
at any time finish the struggle with Peter, for whom he 
entertained a profound contempt, he turned aside to fol- 
low and to dethrone the King of Poland. The Czar 
could have desired nothing better. This breathing time 
enabled him to recruit and drill his army : from their 
enemies, the Swedes, Peter was learning how to beat 
them. Charles, meanwhile, followed Augustus the Strong 
into Poland, and then into his hereditary kingdom of 
Saxony. Five years Charles wasted in needless cam- 
paigns, but at length he compelled Augustus formally to 
renounce the crown of Poland. His ministers wished 
him to take the crown of Poland himself, but in that un- 
quiet monarchy he preferred the part of king-maker, 
and he forced the Diet of Nobles to elect, as king, a 
young Polish nobleman, named Stanislaus Leczinski. 



168 The Age of Anne. a.d. 1707. 

Objection being taken to the candidate's age, Charles 
silenced it by saying, " He is as old as I am." 

Charles kept his camp at Alt Ranstadt, near Leipzig. 
He was now at the summit of his career, and his position 
was very proud. The destinies of Europe 
arbiter of may be said to have been in his hand. On 

Europe. ^ Qne s ^ e he was tempted to imitate his 

ancestor, Gustavus Adolphus, and, declaring himself the 
"protector of the Evangelical religion," to form a great 
Protestant confederation, which would be the Grand Al- 
liance with the Austrian element omitted. On the other 
hand, Lewis XIV., who was with difficulty resisting the 
combination against him, had sent ambassadors to im- 
plore his aid. Had Charles turned his steps westward, 
it is not easy to predict what would have resulted from 
his interference. The Grand Allies knew the danger, 
and Marlborough himself paid a visit to the Swedish 
conqueror, with more than his usual honey of flattery 
on his lips. Conqueror of Blenheim and of Ramillies, 
he told Charles that he would gladly take lessons from 
him in the art of war. But Marlborough soon under- 
stood that Charles would not interfere, and that all his 
preparations were designed against Russia. Amongst 
the lessons in war which Charles could teach, we may 
wonder whether it was one to allow a defeated enemy 
time to gather up his strength again ? 

Section IV. — Pultowa. 

Whilst Charles XII. was campaigning, king making, 
sitting as arbiter of Europe in his camp at Alt Ranstadt, 
Peter was steadily preparing to fight him again. His 
soldiers were overcoming their fear of the Swedes, for, 
in the absence of their king, Peter had beaten them 
once, had captured Narva itself, and had conquered the 



a.d. 1708. Peter the Great and Charles XII. 169 

province of Ingria. He took a Swedish town, and, 
whilst he strengthened its fortifications, he renamed it 
Schlusselburg or Key-town, because he said that it was 
the key to Sweden. 

When Charles at length determined to carry on the 
war with Russia, it is probable, if he had known his own 
mind clearly and carried out his plan, that 
he must have prevailed. Napoleon criti- campafgn 

cised this campaign very unfavourably. jf ainS a 

There is no doubt that Charles should have 
marched straight upon Moscow, for, when once he had 
reached the Russian frontier, a fortnight's hard march- 
ing would have brought him under its walls. On ac- 
count of his delay the Russians were enabled to lay 
waste the country. With a strange fatality Charles 
turned southwards, having been tempted by the promise 
of a remarkable, though not a trustworthy, ally. 

Mazeppa was by birth a Pole. Having been found 
guilty of misconduct, he had been tied naked on a wild 
horse, which carried him amongst the Cos- 
sacks of the wild barren country called the 
Ukraine. The Cossacks received him kindly. He en- 
joyed their warlike, roving mode of life, and rose amongst 
them till he became their hetman, or chief. He had 
been a great favourite of Peter, but he wanted to become 
an independent sovereign. On this account, and be- 
cause of an insult which he suffered at the hands of the 
Czar, he intrigued with Charles, and promised that he 
would join him in the Ukraine, at the head of 30,000 
Cossacks. But the Cossacks, when they discovered his 
intention, refused to desert the Czar, or to follow Mazeppa ; 
and when, after weary marching, Charles reached the 
trysting place, Mazeppa could only bring to him a mere 

handful of men. 

N 



170 The Age of Anne. a.d. 1709. 

The Swedish army was by this time suffering terrbly 

from the want of supplies, and from the frequent attacks of 

the Russian mounted skirmishers. Through- 

Remforce- out t i ie severe co ld of the Russian winter 

ments for 

Swedes de- Charles would not let his army rest in win- 

feated. TT . . , 

ter quarters. He was very ignorant of the 
country, and wasted his strength in fruitless marches and 
countermarches. His only hope now lay in the rein- 
forcements and supplies which he hoped that one of his 
generals was bringing to him ; for he had made a strategi- 
cal mistake in coming so far from his base of operations 
without a proper line of communication. The reinfor- 
cing army was beaten by the Russians ; its remnant suf- 
fered terribly as it struggled on, and at length joined the 
main body, few in numbers, without supplies, and, in 
many cases, even without shoes. 

The town of Pultowa is situated upon a branch of the 
Dnieper, called the Vorskla. It was a magazine of 

stores. For this reason Charles thought it 
Battle of h} s k est cnari ce to attack it, and Peter was 

Pultowa. ' 

July 8, a. d. equally determined on its defence. Peter 
had much the larger army, and his soldiers 
were better equipped and well entrenched. Peter con- 
trived that Charles's army should fight with their backs 
turned towards the angle made by the Vorskla falling 
into the Dnieper. Charles had been wounded in the 
heel in a skirmish a few days before the battle. He was 
obliged to be carried about during the battle in a litter. 
It gives some idea of the fury with which the battle 
raged, when we hear that it only lasted a few hours, and 
that, out of twenty-four bearers of this litter, twenty-one 
were killed. Both of the kings fought bravely, for they 
knew that the future of their countries depended on the 
issue of the fighting. The battle began very early in the 



A.d. 1710-n. Peter the Great and Charles XII. 1 7 r 

morning, and the Swedes charged with such impetuosity 
that they broke the Russian lines. But by some mistake 
the Swedish cavalry was not ready to follow up this ad- 
vantage. The Russians had time to rally. Peter brought 
up a great force of cannon, and, at the same time, sent 
a general to attack the Swedish reserve. A final charge 
of the Russians followed, and the Swedes were com- 
pletely overcome. Mazeppa himself went up to Charles, 
and, knowing that persuasion was vain, made a sign to 
his attendants to place him on a horse ; then, holding 
the bridle, he made their horses swim the river. They 
fled to Turkey. Four days later the whole Swedish army- 
surrendered. There was no alternative for the proud 
troops that had always been conquerors. Peter expressed 
great admiration of them, but sent them into Siberia. 

The results of the battle of Pultowa are very impor- 
tant. On the very day of the battle Peter wrote, " Thank 
God, the foundations of Petersburg at length 
stand firm." The province of Livonia and Results of 
part of Finland fell at once into his hands. 
Demark laid claim to Scania, Prussia to Pomerania. 
The Swedish monarchy was reduced to its original limits, 
from which the genius of one man had raised it, and to 
which the folly of another had now brought it back 
again. Sweden's financial difficulties made her regret 
that she had attempted work that was too much for her. 
But the country in which most joy was expressed was 
Poland, where Charles's nominee was at once driven off 
the throne, and Augustus the Strong resumed his place. 

But before Peter could consolidate his conquests, he 
had one more serious crisis through which to pass, and 
one which almost overwhelmed him. Partly War between 
because Charles had taken refuge in Tur- £ l,s , sia and 

° I urkey. 

key, and partly because Turkey was jealous 



172 The Age of Anne. a.d. 1711-14, 

of the growing power of Russia, a war sprang up be- 
tween those two powers. It was by no means the last 
of such wars, and some people think that it is the tra- 
ditional policy of Russian statesmen never to cease 
struggling for the possession of Constantinople. On this 
occasion Peter imitated his late antagonist's rashness 
and contempt for his enemy. Promises had been made 
by traitorous subjects of the sultan; he be- 
The affair lieved them as Charles had believed Ma- 

of the Pruth. 

zeppa. He crossed the Pruth with his army, 
but found himself hemmed in by a much larger number 
of the enemy. The Russian army was rescued by the 
Czarina Catherine, a Livonian woman of humble birth, 
who had been taken prisoner by the Russians on the 
very day of her marriage to a Swedish sergeant who was 
killed at the same time. After various vicissitudes of 
fortune she had attracted the notice of the Czar by her 
beauty and her wit: and he had publicly announced his 
marriage to her when setting out from Moscow on his 
expedition against Turkey. She was a woman of very 
sweet temper, and had remarkable influence over her 
husband, being the only person who could control him 
during his fits. He had not wished her to accompany 
the army; but she had begged hard, and to the great 
delight of the soldiers she was allowed to go with them. 
In the great strait of the Russian army it was Catherine 
who proposed that a very rich present should be sent to 
the Grand Vizier, giving her own jewels for the purpose 
and encouraging others to give. Negotiations followed. 
The Czar surrendered all claim to Azov and 
to the Black Sea ; and he further engaged 
not to interfere in the affairs of Poland. 



A.D. 171 4-18. Peter th e Great and Ch arles XII. 173 

Section V. — E7id of Charles XII and of Peter. 

Since Pultowa Charles had been at Bender, a town 
not far from the frontier of Turkey. When he reproached 
the Grand Vizier with letting Peter the Great 
escape, he received in reply the taunt: " It ^Bender 1 *' 
is not good that all kings should be away 
from their peoples." The Turks had made their illus- 
trious guest an allowance, but this was now stopped. A 
little later he received a direct order to depart, and when 
that failed he was actually besieged in his own house at 
Bender by the Turkish troops. He fought them from 
room to room. When he was at length overpowered, 
he was carried to a place where he feigned illness for 
some months. After this madness, having received 
pressing letters from Sweden, and hearing of her reverses, 
he suddenly determined to go home. He travelled 
through Germany on horseback, in disguise, with only 
two companions. In sixteen days he arrived before 
Stralsund, and it is said that he had ridden so fast that 
his boots had to be cut off from his legs. Stralsund was 
the last town that the Swedes had been able to retain on 
the south of the Baltic, and very soon a force was be- 
sieging it, composed of Danes, Saxons, Prussians, and 
Russians. He was obliged to escape secretly from the 
town, and immediately after his departure it surren- 
dered. 

Not even his terrible experiences were sufficient to 
teach the fiery Swede. He had learnt nothing, he had 
forgotten nothing-. With enemies enough 

to . ** ° Death, 

around him, and with his country exhausted, December 
he proposed to invade England and restore "' A ' D " * ?I 
the Pretender. He actually did invade Norway, and 
met his death at the siege of Fredericshall. 



174 The Age of Anne. a.d. 1725. 

His fall was destined to a barren strand, 

A petty fortress, and a dubious hand ; 

He left the name, at which the world grew pale, 

To point a moral or adorn a tale. 

Johnson, "* Vanity of Human Wishes." 

The later history of Peter the Great need not detain 
us long. He made another journey through the differ- 
ent countries of Europe, in which he visited 
Great.* * Holland again, and Prussia, and spent six 

Second months in PVance, where he romped with 

journey. r 

the young king, and stood in admiration 
before Richelieu's picture. " Great man," he said, " I 
would gladly give thee half my dominions if thou 
wouldst teach me to rule the other half." While he was 
visiting the mint in France, a medal dropped at his feet: 
picking it up he found on it his own likeness, with the 
motto, Vires acquirit eundo. 

One dark cloud hangs over this part of Peter's life. 
He had a son by his first wife, a boy of strange temper, 
who, sympathising with the party of rebellious priests, 
had always opposed his father. On Peter's return his 

son ran away, first to Vienna and then to 
his^son? Naples. He was brought back by promises 

that he should not be punished, but on his 
return he was condemned as guilty of conspiracy. It 
was given out in a proclamation that Alexis had died in 
a convulsive fit, but there were many who thought that 
the father himself had put him to death. 

Not long after, to his great grief, he lost his other son, 
Peter, the son of Catherine, and in February 1725, he 
„ . . died himself. He died in the faith of a 

Death of 

Peter the Christian. " Lord, I believe, help thou mine 

unbelief," and then, "hereafter." These 

were his last words. What he meant by them no one 



A.D. 1713. The Protestant Succession. 175 

can say, but they certainly may be taken as a motto of 
his work. It was for posterity, not for himself : therein 
lies his true claim to the name of Great. The later his- 
tory of Russia is his best monument. 

Yet the civilisation which he gave to Russia was 
superficial, and there is a Avorld of meaning in the 
phrase of the witty Frenchman, who said, " The Rus- 
sians were rotten before they were ripe." 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

THE PROTESTANT SUCCESSION. 

After the great war England was exhausted and glad 
of rest. From the Peace of Utrecht to the end of Queen 
Anne's reign it may be said that there is no 
incident of historical importance, except n c reign ' 
the events connected with the question of the succession 
to the throne, and of this the interest culminates towards 
the end. 

Bearing in mind what the Revolution of 1688 wrought 
for England, and what it prevented, it was felt to be im- 
portant that its work should not be undone. 
During William's life the cause of the Revo- ^^^ 
lution, or, to put it in other words, of consti- testant suc- 

7 x cession. 

tutional government, had been quite safe. 
As long, also, as Anne should live, there was no danger; 
but the friends of the cause felt that there was a risk 
with respect to her successor. Immediately after the 
Revolution the Bill of Rights, the first statute of William 
and Mary, had decided that the crown should pass first 
to the heirs of Mary, then to Princess Anne and to her 



176 



The Age of Anne. 







±! > 


^h ft) ni 








</) O 


• ;-. ^ U 








3 c 


!? 3-u! 








w$ 


AhQO 

II 








^ O 


1 
















«f d2 










c Co 


^ .£ 








•- Vh ft) (_J 


"8 « 




1 




>H " M 

ID u . 

J-, D 

II 


«vT e' m ° 

■8*5 


00 


1 

W5 1>00 






C5 O 


3 




'L • 




_J3 . 


n ft> 

-a g 


ss 

H»0O 


•3 s^ 

C3 "^3 


1 




4 


03 T3 
3 vO~ 


S-( « 

T3^ 


£2 




a 


w a 


t— 1 Mv o 


v » 


if*** 


B 




W a 


James 

633, SUCC 
dicated 
d. 1 701 


a 


c 
<u 

Q 


CO.O 


00J 




j^ ft> 

~w g 


O 
<U 

C 

1- 


^ 


_3 

3 
i-r» 


+3* 

11 




u 

~ 3 d 


PL, 

1— 1 c 


11 

u 
>> 




S 3 








0> 






Si 

6 


3 

n 


S-4 

K 

11 


"a. 

^ 1) 


a 3 
1° 


t-H 

G 8 




11 
$ 5* 




H 


"1 8 1 


<D S 

-eS*c3 


3 t> 




J3 


.vo 


^0 
IN g 

3 


es II. 3. Mar) 
stored 
1685. 








** :> °2 










-n 2-d 








• yd 


6^1 








'v. 


M M 








01 




N ji 







A. d . 1 7 1 3 . The Protestant Succession. 177 

heirs, after that to the heirs of William by any subse- 
quent marriage. But towards the end of William's reign, 
when Mary had died childless, when it was evident that 
William would not marry again, and when the death of 
the Duke of Gloucester, the only one of Anne's nu- 
merous children who reached even boyhood, had dis- 
appointed the hopes of the nation, new steps were taken 
to secure the succession in safe hands. By the Act of 
Settlement, passed in 1701, the provisions of the Bill of 
Rights were strengthened by the declaration that upon 
failure of heirs to Anne and William, the Electress 
Sophia was to succeed, and that her claim should pass 
to her heirs. As her grandson was a grown man, it 
seemed as if heirs in this line would not be likely to fail. 
The principle upon which the Parliament, both in the 
Bill of Rights and in the Act of Settlement, -proceeded 
was that of selecting the nearest heir to the English 
throne who was a Protestant. It was stipulated as a 
further security that the sovereign must be in communion 
with the Church of England. 

There was no descendant of King Charles I. who satis- 
fied these conditions. If there had been, the English 
people, with their affectionate memory of __ 

r r ■* Who was the 

him, would have very much preferred such Electress 

an one. But besides the family of James II., op ,a ' 

Henrietta Maria, alone of the children of Charles I., 

had left issue ; but, as she married the Roman Catholic 

Duke of Orleans, their children were excluded from the 

English crown. In order, therefore, to find a satisfactory 

successor for the throne it was necessary to turn to the 

descendants of Elizabeth, sister of Charles 

I. Her name takes us back some distance Elizabeth*** 

in English and in Continental history. When 

her father, King James I., ascended the English throne, 



178 The Age of Anne. a.d. 1713. 

uniting the crown of England and Scotland, she was a 
little girl not quite seven years of age. She grew up a 
very beautiful princess, whose praises poets sang, and 
wearing whose colours, soldiers of fortune were ever 
ready to fight. Her hand was sought for a dauphin of 
France, but without success. She was not seventeen 
when, in February 161 3, she married Frederick, the 
Elector Palatine of the Rhine, whose capital was Hei- 
delberg. From that time forward her life was stormy and 
full of trouble, intimately mixed up with the early part 
of the disastrous Thirty Years' War, then with the diffi- 
culties of her brother Charles and his house. But living 
through these she survived the Restoration, and came with 
her nephew to England, dying two years after it in London. 
Elizabeth's husband, Frederick, the Elector Palatine, 
was elected King of Bohemia by the Protestant party in 

that country. But the house of Austria had 
FredSck^ regarded the process of election as a mere 

form, and claimed that the succession to the 
crown of Bohemia was theirs. A war was the result. 
Germany at that time being in a state of disunion and 
hostility between the two great religious parties, the war 
became a religious war, and continued to spread until 
the dispute about the succession in Bohemia had set the 
whole of Europe in a flame. But the first portion of the 
Thirty Years' War was entirely a triumph for the house 
of Austria and the Roman Catholics. Not only was 
Bohemia in a few months wrested from the hands of 
Frederick, called in derision the Winter King, but he 
was driven forth an outcast from his own hereditary 
dominions, and his electorate was given to the Duke of 
Bavaria. At the peace of Westphalia, in 1648, part of 
these dominions was restored to Frederick's family, and 
an eighth electorate established to avoid disputes. 



a.d, 1 71 3. The Protestant Succession. 179 

Frederick and Elizabeth had a large family, the Elec- 
tress Sophia, who inherited her mother's claim to the 
English crown, coming twelfth out of thir- „ 

. , , & 1 . . . Her brother, 

teen. Amongst her elder brothers and sis- Prince 
ters, two have names famous in English his- 
tory, Prince Rupert and Prince Maurice. Prince Rupert, 
who commanded the right wing of the royalist army at 
the Battle of Edgehill in 1642, and whose impetuous 
charge carried that wing triumphantly forward, re- 
gardless of the rest of the battle, was brother to the 
Electress Sophia, who, if Queen Anne had died in the 
spring of 17 14 instead of in the summer, would have 
been Queen of England. His impetuosity led to the de- 
feats of Marstoh Moor and Naseby, and to the surrender 
of Bristol. The license in plundering which he allowed 
his soldiers was a reminiscence of his early experience 
in the German wars. After the conclusion of the Civil 
War Prince Rupert had distinguished himself, first as a 
naval commander, and later in the domain of science. 
The Electress Sophia was born at the Hague in 1630, 
some three months after Gustavus Adolphus landed in 
Germany. She married Ernest Augustus, titular bishop 
of Osnaburg, Duke of Brunswick-Luneburg, who in 1692 
was raised by the Emperor, in return for services ren- 
dered, to the dignity of Elector of Hanover. _.,--, 
**i>fi<i«t« 1 Llfe of tne 

Sophia had her mother s beauty, and was Electress 

remarkable for the evenness of her temper op ia ' 

and for her acquirements. When English ambassadors 
came to her they found that she spoke English as fluently 
as themselves. But she was equally well versed in other 
languages — in French and Italian as well as in Dutch 
and German, about which there might be a dispute 
which should be called her native tongue. At first she 
was not particularly eager to accept the succession to 



180 The Age of Anne. a.d. 1713. 

the English crown. When the Act of Settlement was 
passed, in which she was named as successor, she did 
not think it likely that she would survive Anne, and she 
doubted whether her son George was not of too despotic 
a nature loyally to recognise the limitations of sove- 
reignty in England. Her opinion was that it would be 
better for the Prince of Wales, as she called him, that is 
the Old Pretender, to change his religion and accept 
parliamentary government. When, however, the Act of 
Settlement was formally presented to her she accepted 
the position, and expressed a hope that her descendants 
" would never give the English people cause to be weary 
of them." All who stood nearer in point of blood to the 
English throne were excluded as Roman Catholics, but 
Sophia cannot be regarded as a very strong upholder of 
the Protestant faith if the story be true that, when a 
French agent asked what religion her daughter pro- 
fessed, she answered, "She is of no religion as yet." 
She was waiting to see what would be the creed of her 
future husband. Later, when the aged Electress still 
lived, and it became doubtful whether she might not 
survive Anne, it is said that she used to declare that she 
would die happy if she could have " Queen of England" 
written on her coffin. But it was fortunate for England 
that her wish was not gratified, and that the two deaths, 
which followed each other within less than eight weeks 
in the summer of 17 14, fell as they did. The Electress 
was in her eighty -fourth year, and, as there was some 
danger that the change of dynasty might lead to a rebel- 
lion, it is evident that two successions coming close 
together would be still more dangerous. 

It is somewhat difficult to estimate the real strength 

„, of the Jacobite party. Exaggerated on the 

one side by the zeal of friends and accredited 



a.d. 1714- The Protestant Succession. 181 

agents, who wished to show that the party was 
strong enough to be up and doing, it was exaggerated 
also on the other side by the real or feigned alarms of 
enemies, who wished violent measures to be adopted 
against it. Certainly many who had been loyal subjects 
of William and of Anne were prepared passively to ac- 
cept the Old Pretender upon his sister's death ; many 
even might have taken active measures to secure his 
succession. Probably if the young man would have 
consented to change his religion, a large majority of 
the English people would have argued that the Stuarts 
had learnt lessons enough to make them refrain from 
any further attack on constitutional government. Yet 
the atmosphere of the despotic court in which the prince 
had been trained was not calculated to make him a good 
constitutional king. " The uses of adversity" are sweet 
only if we accept its lessons, and those cannot be taught 
who are determined not to learn. At any rate it must 
be said in James's honour that he never for an instant 
entertained the proposal to renounce his religion. The 
Jacobites may be regarded as an extreme wing of the 
Tory party. Their opponents used unfairly . 

to say that all Tories were Jacobites, and nection with 
indeed an air of suspicion that they were in 
favour of the exiled family hung over all the more pro- 
minent and staunch members of the Tory party. The 
country gentry were mostly Jacobites, and it was asserted 
that at their gatherings they drank the health of " The 
king across the water." 

During the last years of the queen's reign a Tory min- 
istry was in power, and its opponents confidently as- 
serted that the object of the ministers was 
to restore the Pretender. When with the mmistS? 
new reign these opponents came into power 



1 82 The Age of Anne. A. i>. i 7 1 4. 

the Tory ministers were impeached ; but though the 
facts elicited by the Committee of the House of Com- 
mons are quite clear as to the misconduct of the ministry 
with respect to the Peace of Utrecht, and prove that 
they had sullied the honour of England, there is no real 
evidence of a formed design to restore the Pretender. 
The evidence against the ministers Bolingbroke and 
Oxford falls under two heads— their own letters and the 
statements of Whig historians. The latter, if unsup- 
ported, may be dismissed as of no value ; and with re- 
spect to the former it must be remembered that these 
ministers, like many other prominent men of the day, 
were anxious to stand well with both sides, and there- 
fore to the Stuarts exaggerated or invented their services 
in the Jacobite cause. Of the two Oxford is generally 
acquitted of overt treason ; but as Bolingbroke after- 
wards entered the service of the Pretender, and became 
his Secretary of State, this is generally taken as a proof 
that his treason began at an earlier date. It is, however, 
only a presumption and not a conclusive proof. It may 
be true, according to the usual story, that Bolingbroke 
was scheming to restore the Pretender; that, finding 
Oxford would not go the whole length with him, he de- 
termined to oust him from the ministry, and that it was 
only the sudden death of the queen and the promptitude 
of the leading Whigs which prevented the scheme from 
being carried into effect. But if Bolingbroke's heart 
had been in such scheming, it is difficult to believe that 
he could not have done more. The following feeling 
also actuated him : If he was not in favour of the Preten- 
der, he certainly wished to secure the continuance of his 
party in power ; but he knew that the Elector George 
was likely to call the Whigs to office, and he had been 
constantly impressing upon Oxford that gradually every 



a.u. 1714. The Protestant Succession. 183 

position in the State, whatever its seeming importance, 
should be given to a Tory, so that when the new king 
came he might find the Tories too powerful and united 
to remove. As Oxford was half-hearted in this scheme, 
his rival at length resolved to drive him from the 
ministry. 

The last week of Queen Anne's life was an exciting 
time. In the early part of it there was a quarrel in the 
ministry, which led to the ejection of Ox- 
ford. Oxford had nominally higher power week? 5 * 
than Bolingbroke. Holding the office of Q uarr ? ls : in 

° ° the ministry. 

Lord High Treasurer, he was what we should 
now call Prime Minister, and Bolingbroke seems almost 
from the first to have been jealous of him upon this 
ground ; and this jealousy was increased by the con- 
tempt which he did not care to conceal for Oxford's un- 
derstanding. Moreover, Oxford, whose strength lay in 
Court interest, had the misfortune to offend one who 
had been his chief ally, Lady Masham. Herewith he 
fell also under the queen's displeasure. It is said that 
an open quarrel between Oxford and his rival took place 
in the presence of the queen and Lady Masham, and 
that Anne dismissed Oxford with contumely, taking from 
him the white staff, the badge of office, and afterwards 
telling the council her reasons — that he wasunpunctual; 
that she could seldom understand him, and when she 
could, that no dependence was to be placed on what 
he said ; that he was often tipsy ; and that his conduct 
to her was improper. 

The question now arose, who was to succeed Oxford 
as Lord High Treasurer ? and after long deliberations it 
was decided to put the office into commission. But 
before anything could be settled the queen was taken ill, 
from which illness she never recovered. She had long 



184 The Age of Anne. a.d. 1714. 

suffered from a complication of diseases, gout and erysi- 
pelas ; now apoplexy followed. 

We must now give an account of a man in whom at 

this time the queen was much inclined to trust. Charles 

Talbot, Earl of Shrewsbury, was born in the 

Shrewsbury. , , 

His previous year of the Restoration. He was a man ot 
such winning manners that King William 
gave him the pleasant name of " King of Hearts." He 
was not, however, made of the stern stuff that public life 
requires, and though he was a good deal mixed up with 
affairs of State, he was never happy in them. His 
timidity of character not only caused him to shrink from 
office, but made his conduct as a statesman uncertain. 
He early became a Protestant, though his family was 
Catholic, and this conversion brought the ill-will of 
King James upon him. He was one of the seven who 
signed the declaration inviting William of Orange to 
come over to England. As a friend to the Revolution 
he became Secretary of State with the title of Duke of 
Shrewsbury under William III., and though he more 
than once expressed a wish to be released from office, 
the king would not consent to it. Shrewsbury was ac- 
cused of treasonable correspondence with the Stuarts, 
and though there was reason to believe that the accusa- 
tion was not wholly unjust, William, with great mag- 
nanimity, would pay no attention to it. Shrewsbury's 
conscience, however, would not let him rest, and he not 
only retired from office, but, leaving England, went to 
live at Rome. After five years' absence he returned in 
Anne's reign, bringing with him an Italian wife. At 
first he acted with Marlborough and the Whigs ; but the 
great Whig ladies treating his wife with disdain, he was 
estranged, and Harley seized the opportunity to win him 
to the other side. He voted with the Tories on the 



a.d. 1 7 14. The Protestant Succession. 185 

Sacheverell trial. The queen liking him personally ap- 
pointed him Lord Chamberlain. Later he was also 
made Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. 

In the crisis at the end of the reign he assumed a very 
prominent position. Almost the last words that Queen 
Anne uttered were in giving to Shrewsbury 
the staff of Lord High Treasurer: "Use it pointed 
for the good of my people." Who it was 
in the Council that proposed Shrewsbury's name for 
recommendation to the queen is a point in dispute. 
Some say that it was Bolingbroke himself, seeing that 
his own policy had become impossible ; others that it 
was the work of two Whig lords, who, without summons 
but with the connivance of Shrewsbury himself, had 
entered and taken their seats at the Council. 

Whatever may have been the veerings in Shrews- 
bury's career, to one point he was staunch at the end as 
at the beginning of it — his loyalty to the 
Protestant succession. If he had been guilty ™f f u r °*S" 
of treasonable correspondence with the ex- sion safe at 
iled family, he had quite made up his mind 
now. With Shrewsbury, one of the original inviters of 
King William, at the head of affairs, it was felt at once 
that the Jacobites had no chance. They themselves 
seem to have been thoroughly taken aback. Every pre- 
paration was made to secure the Hanoverian succession, 
and when the queen died, August 21, 17 14, George 
Lewis, Elector of Hanover, was quietly proclaimed King 
of Great Britain and Ireland. It was said that a Jacobite 
bishop offered himself in lawn sleeves to proclaim King 
James III. at Charing Cross, but his friends induced 
him to abstain from so mad a project. 

George I., the new King of England, was born in the 
year of the Restoration. He was therefore fifty-four 



186 The Age of Anne. a.d. 1714. 

years old when he began his reign. He had 
been trained as a soldier, and had served in 
campaigns against the Turks, and in the late war had 
commanded in one campaign the army upon the Rhine. 
He was one of the allies, though it usually 
required English money to set the Hano- 
verian, as well as other German troops, in motion. His 
son, afterwards George II., fought bravely at Ouden- 
arde, as he did later at Dettingen. Even their enemies 
never accused either George of want of courage. 

He succeeded his father as Elector of Hanover in the 
last year of the seventeenth century, and was very much 
beloved in his own hereditary dominions. 
Elector These he was very slow to leave when he 

heard that the English crown had fallen to 
him ; and when he did arrive in England he was never 
popular with the English people. They looked upon 
him as a necessity, and perhaps were even thankful to 
him for saving them from the Pretender and French in- 
fluence in England, but how could they 
cou¥d P not r ' l° ve a king who could not speak a word of 
EiTush their language ! Sir Robert Walpole, who 

was Prime-Minister during the greater part 
of his reign, could not speak German, so that the con- 
versations between the sovereign and his minister were 
carried on in bad Latin. George I., like William III., 
was never happy in England, and always rejoiced when 
he could return to Herrenhausen, as his palace near 
Hanover was called. His manners in pub- 
lic were cold and phlegmatic, but it is said 
that in private he could be very sociable. Over his pri- 
vate life there hung a great cloud. When only just of 
age he had married Sophia Dorothea daughter of the 
Duke of Zell ; but, finding her guilty of unfaithfulness, he 



a.d. 1 71 5 End of Lewis XIV. 1S7 

caused her to be shut up in a castle in the 
midst of a desolate heath, from the name of 
which she was called the " Duchess of Ahlden." For 
twenty-eight years she was shut up in this dreary place, 
surrounded by soldiers with drawn swords whenever she 
went forth. She died shortly before the king, whom she 
is said to have summoned to meet her at God's throne. 
George I. was not liked in England, and his private 
life was not fair to behold, but he did not prove a bad 
king for the country. His mother's doubt 
about him was unfounded; so far from de- 9°°,^ kl . ng j 

' for England. 

siring to be despotic, he left the English 
people alone to govern themselves. His reign was a 
time of peace, a peace policy being emphatically that 
which the king, as well as Walpole and his supporters, 
wished to pursue. The material prosperity of the country 
went forward with great strides during the thirty years 
which followed the accession of the House of Hanover. 
"Happy," says the proverb, "is the nation that has no 
history." This interval seems barren in our annals, but 
on that very account it was doubtless a better time for 
people to live in. In all other reigns, from William III. 
to Victoria, the National Debt has increased — it was the 
glory of George I.'s reign that in it alone the debt was 
diminished. 



CHAPTER XIX. 

END OF LEWIS XIV. 



Lewis XIV. died September i, 1715, just thirteen months 
after the death of Queen Anne. He was seventy-seven 
years of age, and had reigned for the enormous number 
of seventy-two years. His reign began in May 1643. 



i88 The Age of Anne. a.d. 1715. 

It was just one month before John Hamp- 
Lewis XIV. ^en f e n mortally wounded in the skirmish 

Events in _._,_. 

England in Chalgrove Field. Lewis was nominally 

parallel with . -,-, r , _ 

his life. reigning over Prance soon after the Great 

Rebellion began in England. He lived to 
see its principles triumph in the Commonwealth, and fall 
at the Restoration, to see them reasserted in a more 
moderate and therefore more durable form in the 
Glorious Revolution. Of these principles he had been 
the determined enemy, as he had been constant to the 
cause of the Stuarts. But this enmity and this support 
had cost him dear, and in his old age Lewis acknow- 
ledged the principles of constitutional government as 
finally triumphant by the recognition of Queen Anne 
which he made in the treaty of Utrecht, and in the 
peaceful recognition, which he so soon afterwards ac- 
corded to the House of Hanover. 

The last years of Lewis were clouded and- overcast. 
Beyond the precincts of the Court were disaster and de- 
feat, which during the whole war of the 
Troubles at succession had been his portion, an empty 
treasury and an exhausted country. Fa- 
mine had done its work, driving men into the army from 
sheer impossibility of obtaining food. In his family rela- 
tions the king had grievous trouble, blow coming after 
blow upon his unfortunate head. In 171 1 sickness raged 
through Europe. The same epidemic of 
Death of small-pox which served to bring the war to 

an end, by the death of the Emperor Joseph 
at Vienna, proved also fatal in Paris to Lewis the Dauphin 
a man of fifty. He had not indeed played a very im- 
portant part in the Court, but he was heir to 
Burgundy. the throne. His eldest son, the Duke of 
Burgundy, the elder brother of the King of 



A. D. 1 715. End of Lewis XIV. 189 

Spain, was a prince of whom high hopes were enter- 
tained. Great care had been taken with his education, 
and that of his brothers, the superintendence of which 
had been entrusted to Fenelon, afterwards Archbishop 
of Cambray, a man famous alike for learning and for 
the gentleness of his character. The Duke 
of Burgundy was Fenelon's favourite pupil, Jfo n educa " 
and the one whose character he had been 
able to mould most nearly after the pattern of his own. 
Fenelon's famous romance, the " Adventures of Telema- 
chus," was written to serve as a model for this young 
prince. Its author did not wish to publish the book, but 
a servant stole a copy from which it was printed. Pass- 
ages in it, finding fault by implication with matters in 
France, were too outspoken for the Court of Lewis, and 
the work was for a time suppressed. But Fenelon hoped 
that the princely virtues which he had inculcated would 
not so readily pass from the mind of his pupil. Three 
years before his father's death the Duke of Burgundy 
was in the field, the nominal commander of the French 
troops before Oudenarde. Want of harmony between 
him and Marshal Vendome may be considered as one 
of the chief reasons of the loss of the battle there fought. 
He married the daughter of Victor Amadeus, of Savoy, 
his brother the king of Spain marrying her sister. The 
Duchess of Burgundy was a graceful, winning princess, 
the life of the whole Court and the especial darling of 
the old king. But in less than a year after the death 
of the Dauphin, the Duchess of Burgundy 
was carried off by malignant fever; and Suke'and 
within a week her husband fell a victim to Duchess of 

Burgundy. 

the same disease. Then their eldest son 

died ; and their second son, Lewis, Duke of Anjou, was 

now heir to the throne. 



190 



The Age of Anne. 



a.d. 1715. 



LEWIS XIII. 

d. 1643. 



:Anne of Austria. 



Lewis XIV. 
d. 1715. 



I. 



Henrietta Maria, 
dau. of Charles 
I. of England. 



Lewis the Dauphin, 
d. 1711. 



Lewis,=M ary Ade- Philip V., 



Duke of 

Burgundy, 

d. 1712. 



laide of 
Savoy, 
d. 1702. 



King of Spain. 



Duke of 
Brittany, 
d. 1 712. 



Lewis XV. 
succ. 1715, d. 1774. 

Lewis the Dauphin, 
d. 1765. 

Lewis XVI.=Mary 
d- 1793- Antoinette. 



nPhilip,=Charlotte 
Duke of Elizabeth, 

Orleans, dau. of Charles, 
d - ^i- Elec tor Palatine. 

Philip, 

Duke of Orleans (Regent of 

France, 1 715-1723). 



Charles, 

Duke of 

Berry, 

d. 1714. 



Philip. 



Lewis Philip 
(Egalite), d. 1793. 

Lewis Philip, 

King of the French, 

1830-1848. 



On these losses in the roya, family of France followed 
the Peace of Utrecht, which Lewis survived a little more 

than two years. His great-grandson suc- 
Contrast^ V ' ceeded him. Born in 1710, he was now five 

years old. Lewis XIV. also had been five 
when he succeeded to the throne : but what a contrast 
the beginning and close of that long reign presents, and 
what a lesson does the contrast read upon the hollow- 
ness which its so-called magnificence hid ! Lewis had 
succeeded to a throne with power consolidated by wise 
government. He had squandered its resources in the at- 
tempt to extend that power and to prop up falling causes. 
He possessed all the externals of a king, but he was lack- 
ing in the true virtues of a ruler. His condemnation is 
that he left France exhausted, and that under him her 



A. d. 1 715. End of Lewis XIV. 191 

people endured years of misery. In all the reign that 

followed, since true statesmen were wanting, there was 

no recovery from this wretchedness. In Lewis XIV. *s 

despotism, misgovernment, and cruel persecution of 

the Huguenots, the seeds of the Revolution were sown. 

When the Camisards were being tortured, the drummers 

played. Drums were beaten also when Lewis the 

Great's own descendant perished by the guillotine. 

No sooner had the old king closed his eyes in death, 

than there passed through France a sigh of relief, one 

might almost say a cry of delight. What- 

1 t • ■, Z 7 Joy at death 

ever the future might be, men thought that of Lewis 
it could not be .as bitter as the past. Nobles 
banished from the Court were glad to return ; men of 
religious creeds not tolerated in it again held up their 
heads. The power of the Jesuits was thought to have 
passed away ; so that even the late king's Jesuit con- 
fessor was hardly safe from the popular fury. 

The new king was five years old. Who then was to 
govern the country during his infancy ? Of the princes 
of the blood royal, the nearest akin to him, 
except the King of Spain, was Philip, Duke ^ho shall 
of Orleans, a. man of considerable ability, but 
unscrupulous, an avowed infidel, and of dissolute life. 
The last years of Lewis XIV. had been embittered with 
the thought that this man, his nephew, was the rightful 
regent to his grandson. He had therefore made a will, 
by which a Council of Regency was appointed, with the 
Duke of Orleans as president, for in France at least the 
hereditary principle must not be entirely set aside ; 
Lewis however, even when drawing his will up, did not 
deceive himself as to its value. " As soon as I am 
dead," said he, " they will put it aside. I know too weU 
what was done with my own father's will." 



192 The Age of Anne. a.d. 1715. 

His prophecy came true. The Duke of Orleans be- 
came regent without any council to limit his power. His 
policy also was in many respects a reversal of that of 
_. , . the old king. He formed a close alliance 

Duke of ° 

Orleans. with England, under George I. and his Whig 

>s po icy. ministers, and a little later with Holland 
against Spain, whose king disputed his title to the re- 
gency. The duke caused strict investigation to be made 
into the finances, and often by harsh and unjustifiable 
measures materially reduced the burden on the country. 
But the reign of Lewis XV. had received from its pre- 
decessor too vast a heritage of disorder, and before its 
distant close it was marked by terrible and costly wars, 
and by misgovernment greater than the nation could 
endure. 



CHAPTER XX. 

THE FRAGMENTS THAT REMAIN. 

There are several who have played parts more or less 
important in this history, and whose later careers we 
must follow to an end before parting with them. 

The great Duke of Marlborough had lived in dignified 

retirement on the Continent during all the latter part of 

the queen's reign. Hearing that the queen 

S uk it of t. wa s not likely to live, he made preparations 

Marlborough. J r r 

to return to England. Having been for 
some time detained by contrary winds at Ostend, on 
landing at Dover he received the news of the queen's 
death and of the quiet accession of the new sovereign. 
When George I. reinstated the Whigs in office, Marl- 
borough was made captain-general or commander-in- 



a.d. 1715- The Fragments that Remain. 193 

chief of the army. In that capacity he superintended 
the military arrangements that suppressed the rising of 
171 5. A little later he suffered from a severe attack of 
paralysis, but not such as to hinder his attendance in 
the House of Lords and the performance of official du- 
ties. In 1722 he died, and was honoured with a splendid 
funeral in Westminster Abbey. The Duchess of Marl- 
borough survived her husband many years, and died at 
the advanced age of eighty-four. She occupied herself 
in drawing up a vindication of the duke's conduct and 
her own, which offers valuable material to the his- 
torian. 

In the treaty of Utrecht, the interests of one people 
had been shamefully neglected by the allies. The peo- 
ple of Catalonia had taken up arms at the 
instigation of the English, especially of ™e Cata * 
Lord Peterborough. They had fought val- 
iantly for the cause of the Austrian claimant. But in the 
negotiations the allies deserted them. When the English 
made peace they withdrew the remnant of their troops 
from Barcelona. When the emperor continued the war 
by himself, in order to concentrate his forces he was 
obliged to withdraw his soldiers also. The King of 
Spain was about to treat them as subdued rebels. But 
the inhabitants determined to resist to the uttermost. 
They fought valiantly, and gallantly defended Barcelona ; 
but the Spanish king was able to procure French sol- 
diers, and the services of Marshal Berwick ; and thus 
the heroic resistance was in vain. In the September 
after the death of Queen Anne, Barcelona was stormed 
and taken. 

By the treaty of Utrecht, Victor Amadeus, Duke of 
Savoy, was made King of Sicily. Five years later, 
Sicily was exchanged for Sardinia. His descend- 



194 The Age of Anne. a.d, 1713- 

Y lct0 F ants remained kings of Sardinia, until in 

Amadeus, . 

Duke of our own time the title was merged in the 

King y of n greater title of King of Italy. During this 

oiSariinia! period of peace he displayed as great talents 

for administration of his kingdom as he had 
previously shown for war. 

In 1730 he determined to abdicate in favour of Charles 

Emanuel, his only surviving son. By no 
Sdon bdl " means an able man, Charles had hitherto 

been kept at a distance by his father, who 
frequently avowed his dislike of him. 

A little more than a year after his father's abdication, 
the new king of Sardinia held a meeting of his council, 
at which it was decided that the old king should be 
placed under arrest. He was very harshly treated, 
soldiers being sent in the night-time, who tore him from 
his wife and hurried him away to prison. In a little 
more than a year again, he died in confinement. It was 
said that he had shown a desire to regain the crown 
which he had surrendered, but he had no force at his 
disposal, and there is no evidence that the charge was 
true. He really fell a victim to the ambition of a minis- 
ter who wished to establish a greater influence over the 
young king. 

In Spain a singular act of abdication took place. 
Philip, who remained king as the result of the War of 

Succession, abdicated in 1724 in favour of 
in Spain.' his son, and retired to a monastery, but upon 

cation bdi " h * s son ' s death in the next year resumed 

power, though professing that it was against 
his will. 

It remains to give an account of the other and un- 
successful claimant of the Spanish crown, whom we have 
known as Archduke Charles, and after the death of his 



a.d. 1 714. Economic and Social. 195 

brother, Emperor. He never could be in- 
duced quite to give up his claim on Spain, per or 
and the result was that he was never on good Charles, 
terms with that country. But his latter history is chiefly 
famous on account of the war that ensued upon his death. 
He had no son that lived beyond infancy, but he had a 
daughter, the beautiful and famous Maria Theresa. On 
this account he prepared a document called the Prag- 
matic Sanction (a name given to certain very important 
State documents), by which he decreed that, failing male 
issue, his daughter was to succeed to his hereditary do- 
minions. To securing promises of adhesion to this Prag- 
matic Sanction, Charles seems to have devoted all the 
energies of the last fifteen years of his life. His diplo- 
macy seemed successful ; but when he died in 1740, the 
promises were not kept, and a tedious war arose, Eng- 
land taking the part of Maria Theresa, France and 
Prussia supporting the Duke of Bavaria against her. 



CHAPTER XXI. 

ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL. 

Section I. — Population. Towns. Architecture. 

Before we consider the social and economic condition 
of the people of England in the reign of Queen Anne, it 
would be advisable to discover how many 
people there were. Unfortunately there is ° pu ' 
no census to guide us, as it was not until the beginning 
of this century that statesmen had the wisdom to require 
an accurate calculation on which taxation could be based. 
The elements for an estimate are twofold. First, we 



196 The Age of Anne. a.d. 1702- 

know the number of houses that paid the hearth tax, 
which might have been called a house tax, for it was a 
certain sum from every house ; and we can multiply that 
by what is known to be the average number of inmates 
of a house, viz. five. Secondly, there was a register of 
deaths, and a calculation can be based upon the average 
rate of mortality. This information is not as precise as 
a census, and the calculations make the population of 
England and Wales vary between five and seven millions. 
It is now about twenty-four millions. He was a wise man 
who wrote — 

It is not growing like a tree 

In bulk, doth make man better be ; 

and a country is not to be considered as necessarily in a 
better condition because its population has increased ; 
on the contrary its condition is worse, unless the growth 
has been proportionate in other respects. 

Of the whole population of England and Wales one- 
tenth was at that time included within London, but with 
that exception the country had a very much 
rather than larger share than the towns. Bristol, the 
next town in population, was only one- 
seventeenth of London, and many towns which were 
considered of importance had populations which would 
now be thought very small. During the period from 
Queen Anne's time to our own the growth of manu- 
factures has been continually drawing the people from 
the country into towns. If a line be drawn from the 
mouth of the Severn to the junction of Ouse and Trent, 
where the river Humber commences, one might say that, 
roughly speaking, it would now divide the manufactur- 
ing from the agricultural parts of the country, that with 
the exception of London the great towns lie to the north 
and west of the line, and that the preponderance of po- 



A . D. 1 7 1 4. Economic and Social. 197 

litical power rests with them. With equal confidence 
one might assert that in Queen Anne's time this line 
separated the important from the unimportant parts of 
England, all that lay to the north and west being com- 
paratively unimportant. 

The facilities of locomotion which have helped the 
growth of manufacture, brought about, first, by the 
improvement in roads, then in coaches and waggons, 
lastly in railways, have also conspired to send the coun- 
try people into the towns, have emptied the small into 
the larger towns, have in favour of London destroyed 
the social prestige of country capitals, and of towns 
which were social centres of large districts. The follow- 
ing may be regarded as a list of the chief 
English towns, after London, in the order Important 

towns. 

of their importance, during Queen Anne's 
reign : — Bristol, the chief sea-port ; Norwich, the largest 
manufacturing city ; York, the capital of the northern 
counties ; Exeter, the capital of the western district ; 
Shrewsbury, of the counties along the Welsh border, 
and well situated for intercourse with Wales ; Worcester, 
in which the porcelain manufacture was beginning to 
rise. To these would have to be added Derby, Notting- 
ham, Canterbury. 

The population of London was then about 700,000, 
that is, one-tenth of that of England and Wales. Modern 
London, with all its suburbs, in the widest 
circuit that is called London, that is to say, 
the postal districts, covers a much larger area, and 
contains about 4,000,000 inhabitants. This makes it 
considerably more than one-tenth of the United King- 
dom, and one-sixth of England and Wales, so that if the 
growth has been remarkable elsewhere, it has been por- 
tentous in London. The earlier growth had been 



198 The Age of Anne. a.d. 1702- 

noticed, and had caused concern to the Government. In 
the reign of Elizabeth, and under the Stuart kings, build- 
ing had been prohibited. But it was found impossible 
to stop the growth of London ; it would have been as 
practicable to stop a tree from putting out its branches 
and its leaves. A great calamity befell London in the 
reign of Charles II. It was burnt down ; but far from 
checking the growth, this only made room for a fresh 
start. Here was an opportunity to build the city anew 
on a systematic plan, and the Government of the day 
commissioned the greatest living architect, Sir Christo- 
pher Wren, to draw up such a plan for the city. This 
can still be seen, with his own Cathedral of St. Paul's 
standing in a free space in the centre, broad wide streets 
leading from it, spacious squares at due intervals, wide 
and convenient quays along the banks of the Thames ; 
but, building in accordance with the plans not being 
strictly enforced, the opportunity was lost. 

London was built hastily after the fire, and many con- 
veniences which are now thought necessary, and which 
might have been supplied had a little more 
time been taken, were neglected. Not only 
were the streets narrow and irregular, but there was no 
arrangement for sewers, and there were no gutters to 
the streets. The police service also was very bad ; " the 
watch " was wholly insufficient in numbers, and was 
composed chiefly of old men. The streets were badly 
lighted of a night, and it was quite easy for anyone bent 
on mischief to overpower the watch. Of course thieves 
and robbers availed themselves of the power ; but others 
also, who should have known better, took occasion not 
to rob but to riot. Young men of birth and fashion used 
to form themselves into clubs, banded together for the 
sole purpose of creating disturbances. The most fashion- 



a . d . 1 7 1 4. Economic and Social. 199 

able of these, the Mohawks, were a terror to all peace- 
loving citizens, their name being taken from the wild 
tribe of North American Indians- An ancient writer 
mentions it as a sign of progress in civilisation when 
men cease to wear swords. This stage had not been 
reached in Queen Anne's reign, when the young bucks 
and dandies of society were always ready to draw their 
rapiers, and the honest citizens had to arm themselves 
with bludgeons. 

''"The London of Queen Anne's day consisted of two 
parts, then more distinct than now, the City and West- 
minster. The space between them was not built over. 
But London proper, what is strictly called the City, was 
no longer sufficient to contain all the inhabitants, and 
fashionable life had already begun that 
movement to the West which is so remark- Westmin^" 
able a feature in the history of London. The sten 
fashionable quarters then were the neighbourhood of 
Great Ormond Street and Queen's Square. To the West 
lay Kensington, a separate village where was King 
William's Palace. Both London and Westminster may 
be said each to have had two centres, one secular and 
the other ecclesiastical : London, the Exchange and St. 
Paul's ; Westminster, the Parliament Houses and the 
Abbey, or Minster, whence the place had its name. 

The Exchange was the commercial centre, and indeed 
may be said at this time to have become the centre of 
the commerce of the world. In the Middle 
Ages Venice was the centre of the world's \ he Ex * , 

change and 

trade. The invention of the compass took London's 

... - -.. . commerce. 

away this supremacy from Venice, as man- 
ners were no longer confined to coasting voyages. The 
extreme commercial activity of the Netherlands next 
made Bruges and Antwerp the centre, and they retained 



200 The Age of Anne. A. D. 1702- 

this supremacy during the Reformation period. The 
persecution of the Protestants by the Spanish Govern- 
ment, and the fierce fighting which followed the Revolt 
of the Netherlands, destroyed this. Commerce was 
driven from Antwerp through the long siege by the Duke 
of Parma, which ended in the year that followed Eliza- 
beth's death. During the next century, the seventeenth, 
the supremacy of trade lay between Amsterdam and 
London, the former having the best of it until the Eng- 
lish Civil War was over ; but in the latter half of the 
century London was beginning to prevail. The com- 
mercial rivalry between the English and the Dutch was 
very keen, and their commerce was nearly equal ; but 
the plan was slowly though surely passing to England. 
Tyre in Fenelon's" Telemaque," is supposed to be Am- 
sterdam ; but if he had written a quarter of a century 
later he would probably have described London. The 
following passage from the "Spectator" gives Addi- 
son's picture of the Exchange, which, it mustbe remem- 
bered, is neither the Exchange that now is, nor that origi- 
nally built by Sir Thomas Gresham, but the second, 
namely, that which was built after the Great Fire, and 
which was itself destroyed by fire in 1838 : — 

" There is no place in the Town which I so much love 
to frequent as the Royal Exchange. It gives me a secret 
Satisfaction, and in some measure gratifies my Vanity, 
as I am an Englishman, to see so rich an Assembly of 
Countrymen and Foreigners consulting together upon 
the private Business of Mankind, and making this Metro- 
polis a kind of Emporium for the whole Earth. I must, 
confess I look upon High Change to be a great Council, 
in which all considerable Nations have their Representa- 
tives. ... I have often been pleased to hear Disputes 
adjusted between an Inhabitant of Japan and an Alder- 






A.D.I 714- Economic and Social. 201 

man of London, or to see a Subject of the Great Mogul 
entering into a League with one of the Czar of Mus- 
covy." 

The only art that really nourished in Queen Anne's 
time was Architecture, and that because -England hap- 
pened to possess an architect of consummate 
genius. Sir Christopher Wren was a man of Architecture. 

r Sir C. Wren. 

great attainments, being especially learned 
in astronomy and in mechanics, and one of the first 
members of the Royal Society founded in the reign of 
Charles II. He was as modest as he was learned, and 
perhaps would have been treated with more respect in 
that age if he had more firmly asserted his own rights. 
He was not especially educated for the profession of an 
architect, but when he was appointed king's surveyor he 
at once showed hirgself a master of the art. With all 
the architects of his day, he evidently preferred the 
classical style. Before the Fire, he was asked to restore 
old St. Paul's, which was in the Gothic style, and he did 
add some towers to Westminster Abbey, which are 
amongst his least successful productions. But whilst 
the question of the restoration of St. Paul's 
was being debated, and the battle of the St ' Pauls ' 
styles being fought, the Great Fire put an end to the 
controversy. St. Paul's is Wren's greatest work, though 
some say that the church of St. Stephen's, Walbrook, 
is a more perfect specimen of his art. It was a dean of 
St. Paul's that wrote of the Cathedral: "What eye, 
trained to all that is perfect in architecture, does not 
recognise the inimitable beauty of its lines, the majestic 
yet airy swelling of its dome, its rich, harmonious orna- 
mentation?" 

As the subscriptions for the rebuilding of St. Paul's 
did not come in fast enough, Parliament voted that a 
P 



202 The Age of Anne. a.d. 1702- 

portion of the duty on coals should be ap- 
plied to the purpose. The total cost of the 
cathedral was 747,661/. lay. *>d. The first stone was laid 
in Wren's presence. June 21, 1675, the nine years since 
the fire having been spent in making designs, and the 
highest stone of the lantern in the cupola was also set 
by his son in his presence in 1710. It is rare in the 
history of great buildings, especially of cathedrals, that 
they should be finished in the lifetime of the original 
architect. Indeed, it was a marvel both on account of 
its cheapness, and because of the short time in which it 
was built. After the completion of the cathedral, it was 
voted by the Parliament in 171 1 that fifty new churches 
should be built, and that the portion of the coal duty 
which had been expended on St. Paul's should be ap- 
plied to that purpose. It is not known how many of 
these churches were actually built. Yet we may say 
that most of the London churches, built since the Fire, 
are of Wren's designing. Fault is found 
ren s s y e. ^ .^ ^.^ b ecause ms churches are not 

Gothic, an objection which seems to imply that there is 
only one order of ecclesiastical architecture, and surely 
narrows the art ; and also because he mixed the styles 
in putting steeples, which are a feature of Gothic archi- 
tecture, over buildings, and especially over porticoes, 
in the Greek style. The defence is this, that architecture 
having had its full development, and absolutely new in- 
vention being impossible, the originality of a modern 
architect consists in skilful composition and harmonious 
proportions. If the combination does not offend the 
eye, it is pedantry to object that it runs counter to the 
traditions of the art. 

By way of contrast with Sir C. Wren, it may be 
well to mention another architect of the day. Sir John 



a . d . 1 7 1 4. Economic a nd Social. 203 

Vanbrugh had distinguished himself as a 

writer of very coarse comic dramas. As men v ir -l ohn , 

* Vanbrugh. 

used to change from soldier to sailor, so Sir 
J. Vanbrugh became an architect. He built his own 
house out of the ruins of Whitehall. A brother architect 
compared it to "a flat Dutch oven," and Swift has a 
funny little poem about the house, describing everyone 
as hunting for it up and down the river banks and un- 
unable to find it, until at length they did — 

In the rubbish spy 
A thing resembling a goose-pie. 

This was the architect who was chosen to build for a 
grateful nation, at an expense of half a million pounds, 
Blenheim Palace, near Woodstock, to be presented to 
the victorious Duke of Marlborough. It is imposing 
chiefly on account of its size, but the style is very heavy, 
and justifies the epigram written on the architect : 



Lie heavy on him, earth, for he 
Laid many a heavy load on thei 



thee. 

The immense improvement in one city should be men- 
tioned, because it began within this period. Bath was 
known as a watering-place as long ago as 
the Roman occupation of Britain. It seems 
always to have preserved its reputation, but it was so 
uncomfortable that no one cared to stay there, unless 
for the purposes of health. In the first year of Queen 
Anne's reign a man of fashion — one Richard Nash, 
nicknamed Beau Nash — paid it a visit, as some say, in 
order to replenish a purse emptied by gambling, as well 
as to mend health broken by dissipation. He at once 
set to work to increase the cheerfulness of the place, 



204 The Age of Anne. a.d. 1702- 

and to provide amusement for those who resorted to 
it. His genius for organization was quickly recognised, 
and he was appointed Master of the Ceremonies in 1704. 
From that time, for a period of nearly fifty years, 
he may be described as king of Bath, whilst squares 
and terraces, pump-rooms and public buildings, rose 
almost like magic ; till under his auspices Bath be- 
came the well-ordered city that it now is, deserving, with 
its magnificent situation, the title of the queen of water- 
ing-places. 

Section II. — The Poor Statistics. 

It seems advisable to collect under one head some 

scattered information on the history of the English poor. 

Under the feudal svstem the poor man was 

History of •••.«-" 

the poor. a serf. The difference between a slave and 

Serf 

a serf is that the former is a personal chattel 
and might be sold, the latter could not be sold away from 
the estate, but had no personal liberty. He was not 
able to move from the place where he was born, and he 
was obliged to serve one particular lord. In A. D 1346 
came the pestilence known as the Black Death, which cut 
off half the labouring population of England, and by a 

well-known economic law raised the position 
Black f those that were left, because as there were 

Death. ' 

fewer labourers their services were more in 
demand. The result was that Parliament passed the 
Statute of Labourers to compel the labourer to work 
for certain wages. That the position of the labourers 
was improved is shown by the fact that their class, under 
Walter the tiler and others, raised an insurrection at the 
opening of the next reign, a thing which their grandsires 
would never have dreamt of doing. 

The next great event in the history of the poor was 



A. d. 1714. Econo?nic and Social. 205 

the suppression of the monasteries. There can be no 
doubt that the monasteries supplied bed and 

1 l Suppression 

board to those who asked, thus conferring a of monas- 
great blessing on those who could not, and 
an equally great bane on the idle who would not, work. 
The suppression of these religious houses in the reign of 
Henry VIII. had the effect of letting a flood of poor 
loose upon society ; and its necessary results may be 
seen in two Acts of Parliament — the first Poor Law and 
the first Statute of Vagrants. 

The statue against vagrants in Henry VIII. 's reign 
enacted that the " sturdy and valiant " beggar, the man 
who can work and will not, was to be 
whipped at the cart's tail : the statute of Statute of 

Vagrants. 

Elizabeth enacted that he was to be whipped 
and branded in the ear, that whoever liked might put a 
collar on him and make him a servant ; the statue of 
Charles II., that he should be transported to the Eng- 
lish plantations beyond the seas. In Queen Anne's 
reign a statute was passed that beggars should be put into 
the army, and as soldiers were well paid, they should cer- 
tainly have felt that this was kind treatment. 

The Poor Law of Henry VIII. was modified in the 
reign of Elizabeth, but the statute then passed lasted 
until the great Reform Bill. Churchwardens 
and overseers were to " provide work, build 
poor-houses, and apprentice paupers." 

It is generally allowed that what the poor can fairly 
claim is relief for the sick and the infirm, who cannot 
work, and work for those who are able-bodied, but who 
are absolutely unable to find it. It is with the latter in 
view that what used to be called the poor-house is now 
called the work-house. The work-house should not be 
made too comfortable, because men should be taught 



206 The Age of Anne. a.d. 1702- 

that they ought to support themselves, and not be sup- 
ported by others. In Queen Anne's reign 
Pauperism there were 1,330,000 paupers, or nearly one 
Anne's in five of the whole population. Men often 

complain, now-a-days, of the burden of 
pauperism ; but the proportion of paupers has very much 
diminished. In the year 1873 there were, in round num- 
bers, 890,000. It is thought that this number is too large, 
and with discreet measures can, and will be reduced. 
Yet, this is only one in twenty-seven of the population. 
Side by side with this calculation one must, however, 
place the cost. The paupers of Queen Anne's reign 
cost 900,000/. in the year, or about 145. apiece, whilst the 
poor rate in 1873 amounted to 13,000,000/., or 14/. apiece. 
Now, the decrease in the value of money since that time 
is not nearly in the ratio of one to twenty. This shows, 
therefore, that the pauper is more expensively housed 
and cared for in the present day, and probably, also, 
that he is a more permanent charge ; for the pauper of 
Queen Anne's day can only have been at times " upon 
the parish," as the 14s. would not suffice to keep him 
more than a third of the year. As some must have 
been permanently upon the parish, others, who were but 
a temporary charge must be included in the calcu- 
lation. 

There is no doubt that the value of money has con- 
siderably decreased since the reign of Anne, but it is not 
easy to find the exact figure by which our money should 
be multiplied. It is said that the price of a sheep was 
js., and of an ox 2/. This would make meat rather less 
than a penny a pound. The same observer says that 
2/. 55. would keep a labouring man in food for a year. 
But prices varied from year to year much more than they 
vary now, because the country was much more depend- 



A . d . 1714. Economic a nd Social. 207 

dent on its own harvest than it is now. In the pres- 
ent day so much corn is imported, that the deficiency 
of an English harvest can be made up, without a great 
or sudden change in general prices. The fluctuations 
in the price of wheat were remarkable : at 565-. 6d. a 
quarter in 1699, it went down to 25s. 6d. after the abun- 
dant harvest of 1702. There was a deficient harvest 
next year, and prices doubled. In 1706 again we are 
told that the kingdom was blessed with plenty, and the 
people cheerfully contributed to the expenses of the war. 
But the winter of 1708 in England, as in France, was 
terribly severe; it was noticed that the wheat was all de- 
stroyed on the north-east side of the furrows, a fact 
which points to the prevalence of cutting north-east 
winds. Wages averaged about lod. a day. The pay of 
a soldier was Sd., whereas the French soldier only had 
3d. A private in the present day receives is. 2d., besides 
barrack-room, pension, and facilities for buying food 
cheaper. The labourer probably had better wages, but 
he had no facilities for saving beyond an old stocking. 
There were no investments open to him, and no savings 
bank. 

England and Wales may be said roughly to consist of 
thirty-seven million acres ; and a glance at 
the following table will show how these acres 
were and are distributed: — 



The land. 



Then. Now. 

Arable .... 9 — 14J 

Meadow (including park) . 12 — 12 

Woods .... 6 — 2 

Unfit for cultivation . 10 — 8£ 

The staple produce of England was corn. The popula- 



208 The Age of Anne. a.d. 1702- 

tion being so much smaller, and, at the same time, a 
larger part of it being employed in agricul- 
ture, the country ^as easily able to supply 

her own needs of wheat. 

The second produce was wool. England had long 

been a wool-growing country ; her meadows were famous 
for the breed of sheep ; her chancellor sat 

Wool 

upon the woolsack. But it had been the 
custom to send all the wool over to the Continent to be 
manufactured. Many English statesmen had regretted 
this, but the wool still went over. Then came small 
beginnings of the cloth manufacture in England. 
Edward III. had imported families of cloth-workers from 
the Netherlands ; and it is said that, in his reign, the 
name " worsted " was given to the yarn made from spun 
wool, after a small town of that name in Norfolk. In 
order to foster the manufacture in England, various 
statutes were made to encourage the natives to exclude 
the foreign cloth : in 1696 the latter was absolutely pro- 
hibited, and in the reign of Charles II. it had been de- 
creed that everyone was to be buried in woollen cloth. 
In old church registers one may find the entry, "buried 
in wool." Further, Irish wool was prohibited, and not 
only Irish wool but Irish linen. Of course Englishmen 
could not complain when the same protective policy was 
repeated in another country, and British as well as Irish 
woollen goods absolutely prohibited in France. Of the 
English manufacture Leeds was already the centre, but 
it was a town of very different size from the Leeds of 
to-day. Its population is now thirty-seven times as large. 
But in our days the woollen manufacture is only the 
third of English manufactures— that of cotton being 
about tw 
second. 



A.D. 1714- Economic and Social. 209 

Cotton was then beginning to raise its head, and the 
policy that had always discouraged all rivals to English 
wool was repeated. A statute was passed in 
1700 (the year in which Charles II. of Spain Cotton ' 

died), prohibiting the importation of cotton goods, such as 
Indian muslins and chintzes. The competition, how- 
ever, most to be feared was not the manufactured goods, 
but the fibre imported from America to be made in Eng- 
land into goods ; and that business must have assumed 
some dimensions when, in 1701, cotton goods worth 
23,000/. were exported. The amount is now three and 
a half times as many millions as thousands then. 

Other manufactures were still very young. The coal 
fields were not largely worked, as coal was only re- 
quired for domestic purposes. That from 
Newcastle-upon-Tyne was considered the Manufac- 

r J tures. 

best. Sheffield, famous for its " whittles " 
even in Chaucer's time, kept up its reputation for cutlery, 
though the manufacture was on a small scale. The 
French refugees who settled in England, and who vexed 
the Tories because their Protestantism was not that 
of the English Church, introduced several valuable 
branches of manufacture ; silk weaving was the chief, 
but to these also must be added, glass, paper, and hats. 
All the gold and silver came into Europe from America, 
through Spain, entering by Cadiz, "the golden gate of 
the Indies." 

There can be no doubt, as regards the standard of com- 
fort, that the English people were far beyond other 
European nations. Ambassadors wrote to express as- 
tonishment that the food was so good, that the consump- 
tion of beer, spirits, and foreign wine was so large, and 
that articles of luxury imported from dis- 

. , , , , , Standard of 

tant lands were in such general use. An comfort. 



210 The Age of Anne. a. d. 1702- 

English writer of the time estimates, indeed, that only 
half the labouring class ate animal food more than 
twice a week, but in proportion to wages meat was 
much cheaper then than it is now. The consumption of 
beer seems enormous. It was calculated that in the year 
after the Revolution a quart a day was brewed for every 
man, woman, and child in England ; whereas the same 
calculation makes the amount in the present day sixty 
quarts per annum, or just one-sixth. It would not be a 
fair conclusion that the English are now a more sober 
people because less beer is drunk, for a great deal that 
was brewed was very small beer. The majority of the 
English people have three meals a day — breakfast, din- 
ner, and tea, and it is only at one of these that the larger 
portion ever touch beer. The choice then lay between 
wine or spirits, cider, beer, milk, or water. It is to two 
beverages that have since passed into com- 
mon use, tea and coffee, that the diminution 
in the amount of beer is due. Tea, or as it was then 
always pronounced, tay, 

(And gentle Anna, whom three realms obey, 

Does sometimes counsel take and sometimes tea. — POPE.) 

was first brought into England by the Dutch nearly a 
century earlier, but during the whole seventeenth cen- 
tury it was regarded as a rare luxury. Mr. Pepys drank 
his first cup of tea on September 25, 1661, describing it 
as — " A China drink, of which I had never drunk before. " 
In the reign of Charles II. the East India Company pre- 
sented the king with two pounds of tea. But during the 
latter years of the century and through the reign of 
Queen Anne its use as a beverage was rapidly spreading. 
We have an estimate of the consumption just after the 



A.D. 1 714. Economic and Social. 211 

accession of George II. It amounted in the year to 
700,000 lbs., and the price, depending on the quality, 
varied between thirteen shillings and twenty shillings a 
pound. The amount imported into England in 1872 was 
185,000,000 lbs. 

Coffee was making its way at the same time. Coffee 
was imported from the Levant, which it easily reached 
from Arabia, its home. It was first brought 
into England by a Cretan gentleman, who 
made it his common beverage at Balliol College, Oxford, 
in the year when the Long Parliament first met. Coffee 
became a social power earlier than tea. The Greek 
servant of an English Turkey merchant from Smyrna 
is said to have started the first coffee-house in London 
in the time of the Commonwealth. About the end of 
the seventeenth century, coffee-houses were very com- 
mon, and important as a means of social and political 
intercourse amongst men. They filled the place that is 
now filled by the London clubs. Some were chiefly 
political places of resort for only one party ; others, es- 
pecially the famous Wills', in Covent Garden, were 
literary. Those who wished to see, to hear, or perhaps 
to bow to a prominent literary man, such as Dryden or 
Addison, would find him at the coffee-house. These 
houses had great influence in the formation of opinions. 
Men now-a-days often take their opinion from their club 
or their newspaper ; then they took it from the coffee- 
house. 

On the general question of the far-brought supply of 
luxuries one may, with advantage, read the 
following passages from the paper in the 
"Spectator" which begins with the glories of the Ex- 
change : — 

" Almost every Degree produces something peculiar 



212 The Age of Anne. a.d. 1702- 

to it. The rood often grows in one Country, and the 
Sauce in another. The Fruits of Portugal are corrected 
by the Products of Barbadoes, the Infusion of a China 
Plant sweetened with the Pith of an Indian Cane. The 
Philippick Islands give a Flavour to our European 
Bowls. The single Dress of a Woman of Quality is 
often the Product of a hundred Climates. The Muff and 
the Fan come together from the different Ends of the 
Earth. The Scarf is sent from the Torrid Zone and the 
Tippet from beneath the Pole. The Brocade Petticoat 
rises out of the Mines of Peru, and the Diamond Neck- 
lace out of the Bowels of Indostan. 

" Our Ships are laden with the Harvest of every Cli- 
mate : our Tables are stored with Spices and Oils and 
Wines : our Rooms are filled with Pyramids of China, 
and adorned with the Workmanship of Japan : our 
Morning's Draught comes to us from the remotest 
Corners of the Earth : we repair our Bodies by the Drugs 
of America, and repose ourselves under Indian Cano- 
pies. My Friend Sir Andrew calls the Vineyards of 
France our Gardens: the Spice Islands our Hot-beds: 
the Persians our Silk-weavers, and the Chinese our 
Potters." 

England and Wales consumed eleven million pounds 
of tobacco, and sent on no less than seventeen millions 
to the Continent, all of which came from the English 
plantation in Virginia. 

One other point should be especially noticed— the 
change in the taste for wine which was brought about 
during this reign. Since the days of the 
Black Prince, and earlier, there had been a 
large English trade with Bordeaux. The favourite wines 
in England were the French, which passed then, as 
often now, under the general name of claret. In 



A . d . 1 7 1 4. Economic and Social. 213 

the year before the English Revolution, the ^a!ret OUStS 
amount of French wine imported was three 
and a half times as much as that from Spain and Port- 
ugal together. The Methuen Treaty with Portugal, 
however, decided that the tax upon Portuguese wines 
admitted into England should always be one-third less 
than that on French, for which privilege Portugal was to 
import no woollen goods but English. The old Tories, 
and especially those in Oxford Common Rooms, were 
very strong in favour of their Burgundy, and would 
gladly have seen the Methuen Treaty cancelled : but 
the result of that treaty was a change in the public taste ; 
and for more than a century port reigned supreme, until 
that in its turn became a sort of emblem of Toryism. 
One evil followed. The port was much stronger than 
the claret, but men drank the same quantity with very 
bad results: a great deal of the hard drinking which 
distinguished the eighteenth century can fairly be traced 
to the Methuen Treaty. 

Firm and erect the Caledonian stood ; 

Sweet was his mutton and his claret good. 

" Thou shalt drink port," the English statesman cried; 

He drank the poison, and his spirit died. 



Section III.— National Debt. 

The account of this time would not be complete with- 
out some statement of the debt of the country. It was 
not indeed in this reign that the practice of making pos- 
terity pay began, but in this reign the practice was vig- 
orously carried on. 

The principle of a National Debt is just the same as 
that of a debt incurred by a private individual. If some- 



214 The Age of Anne. a.d. 1702- 

thing has to be done, the advantage of which 
principieof is not confined to one year, there is no 
a debt. reason that a man should pay for it out of 

income. It is quite fair to make posterity pay in part 
for advantages which posterity will enjoy : and circum- 
stances may arise which justify placing part of the bur- 
den of a war on the future. Strictly, however, such a 
war should be defensive, for in self-defence the nation is 
defending posterity's freedom as well as its own ; but, 
with respect to other quarrels, posterity may be expected 
to have its own. There was a small national debt in 
England before the Revolution, Charles II. having 
taken the money of the goldsmiths and having told them 
that he would pay interest, though he would not repay 
the principal. The payment of interest was so neglect- 
ed by the Treasury, that the owners of the money had 
well-nigh given up hope, when the Revolution took 
place. The debt was then acknowledged, and became 
the nucleus of the Funds. Whatever blessings the 
Glorious Revolution conferred upon England, it is to the 
Revolution that we owe the National Debt. The system 
of funding was brought from Holland, and the policy of 
interference in Continental wars was commenced by the 
Revolution. This is not the place to consider how far 
England was bound in honour to enter upon those wars, 
or whether the " balance of power " was a delusion. It 
is in Queen Anne's reign that we first hear of stocks 
going up or down, forming what has been described as a 
national pulse, so that the skilful man may be able to 
tell whether the state of the nation is healthy. The crea- 
tion of the public funds has undoubtedly helped in the 
formation of a moneyed class in opposition to the landed 
interests. 

But unfortunately when once the rulers had learnt 



A.d . 1 7 1 4. Economic and Social. 215 

how easy it was to raise a loan, and throw the payment 
on the future, the necessity for care was re- 
moved. They were spending another genera- JfdJ^LKE 
tion's money, not their own. The following 
table will show with what fatal readiness the lesson was 
learnt. The figures represent millions of pounds : — 

Loans, or posterity's share. 

William's War, ending with Peace of Ryswick . . 13J 

The Spanish Succession War 38 

The wars in George II.'s reign, and including the whole 

of the Seven Years' War 86 

War of American Independence 121 

Great French or Napoleonic War 600 

In the earlier wars the taxation was nearly equal to 
the loans. But in the worst and most unnecessary, the 
American, the taxation did not amount to one-third of 
the debt incurred. The example has been followed also 
by other nations, and the debts of the world now amount 
to no less than 4,000,000,000/. 

The change of public sentiment on the subject of the 
debt is shown by the fact that Swift thought the amount 
so great that he was in favour of repudiation. 
The Whigs always made out that such a £ e n pudia ' 

policy would have been pursued if the Pre- 
tender had been restored. Addison, with his usual feli- 
city, describes a dream which fell upon him after a visit 
to the bank. It is a vision of Public Credit, a beautiful 
virgin, whose touch could turn what she pleased to gold. 
Magna Charta, the Acts of Uniformity, Toleration, and 
Settlement are on the walls. She is easily affected by 
news, wastes quickly away, and recovers with equal 
quickness. Then, in a dance, entered hideous phan- 
toms, two by two, at sight of which the lady fainted. 



216 The Age of Anne. A.u.1702- 

They were Tyranny and Anarchy, Bigotry and Atheism, 
the Genius of a commonwealth, with a young man about 
twenty-two years of age. He had a sword in his right 
hand, which in the dance he often brandished at the Act 
of Settlement. A citizen whispered that he saw a sponge 
in his left hand. This was the Pretender, and the sponge 
was to wipe out the national debt. The scene vanished, 
and a second dance entered of amiable phantoms, 
Liberty and Monarchy, Moderation and Religion, a 
third person (whom Addison had then never seen, the 
Elector of Hanover), with the Genius of Great Britain. 
Whereupon Public Credit revived, and there were pyra- 
mids of guineas. 

Statesmen of the present day see the need of making 
a provision for repayment, though, as money continually 
decreases in value, the burden continually becomes of 
less weight in proportion. When the French war ended 
the amount was 840 and it is now 780 millions. 

"Woe to England," has been the warning of thinkers, 
" when the coal fields are exhausted and the national 
debt remains unpaid ! " 

Section IV. — Strength of parties. The Clergy. 

As it was in the reign of Anne that parties began to 
assume the shape which they have kept almost to our 
. own times, it seems advisable to considerthe 

Parties. ' 

The bulk of classes of society from which the two par- 
ties respectively drew their strength. One 
must premise that the great bulk of the English people 
belongs to no party, but, being as it were between the 
two, sways from one to the other, according as their sense 
of justice or the prejudices of passion may incline them. 
When the Long Parliament met, the bulk of the people 
were opposed to the Court. Twenty years later at the 



a. d. 1 7 1 4. Economic and Social. 217 

Restoration they were as certainly for the Stuarts, and 
as surely at the Revolution against them. We may note 
also the sudden change in the queen's reign, when the 
same mob that had cheered Marlborough shouted for 
Dr. Sacheverell. The same reflection helps to explain 
sudden changes of our own as well as of other days. 

The strength of the Tories lay in the country rather 
than in the towns, in the small boroughs rather than in 
the large towns, in the agricultural rather 
than in the moneyed interest. The tenant 
farmers were mostly Tories. Almost all the clergy, 
and especially the country clergy, were to be found in 
the Tory ranks. As an extreme wing of the Tory clergy 
must be ranked the non-jurors, those who resigned place 
rather than take the oath of allegiance to William and 
Mary, a sect numerically unimportant, but comprising 
several men who were distinguished for learning and for 
piety. 

The Whigs were strong in the large towns, London 
being especially staunch to them. The merchants and 
bankers, as well as most of the small free- 
holders in the country, were Whigs. A good 
many of the lords and of the bishops belonged to that 
party ; but this was because the former had been created, 
and the latter appointed, by King William. To these 
must be added the whole body of the Dissenters, who 
were estimated to amount to 4 per cent, of the popula- 
tion. 

As the Universities were the recruiting ground of the 
clergy, we should expect that the Tory party would be 
strong in them. It was, however, much stronger at 
Oxford than at Cambridge. Shortly after the accession 
of George I., at the time of the rising for the old Preten- 
I der, it was found necessary to send soldiers down to 

Q 



218 The Age of Anne. a.d. 1702- 

Oxford to keep order. At the same time the king hap- 
pened to be sending a present of books to the sister 
University. 

An Oxford epigram was written — 

The king observing, with judicious eyes, 

The state of both his universities, 

To Oxford sent a troop of horse ; and why ? 

That learned body wanted loyalty ; 

To Cambridge books he sent, as well discerning 

How much that loyal body wanted learning. 

A Cambridge man replied — 

The king to Oxford sent a troop of horse, 
For Tories own no argument but force; 
With equal skill to Cambridge books he sent, 
For Whigs admit no force but argument. 

There was a great difference between the clergy of the 

towns and of the country ; the London clergy, especially, 

were often men of mark. But the great majority of the 

clergy were both in learning and in social position far 

below the standard of the present day. It 

The clergy. . * . ' 

-Queen Anne's was estimated that not one benefice in forty 
was worth 100/. a year, so that the " pass- 
ing rich on 40/. a year," of Goldsmith's poem would 
not then have excited the smile that it now does ; and as 
the Church of England wisely allows its clergy to marry, 
there was very general misery and distress amongst their 
families. Bishop Burnet claims the credit of having 
suggested a method of improving their position, first to 
William and then to Anne. The humane heart of Anne 
at once approved the suggestion, and Parliament was 
found quite willing to sanction the plan, In the times 
before the Reformation it had been the practice to give 
to the Pope first-fruits and tithes, that is, the whole of 



a.d. 1 714. Literature. 219 

the first year's revenue, and a tithe of all later years. 
When Henry VIII. pillaged the Church this revenue was 
seized by the Crown, and Burnet's suggestion was to 
apply this fund to the improvement of the livings of the 
poorer clergy. It is still called Queen Anne's Bounty. 



CHAPTER XXII. 

LITERATURE. 

Section I. — French Literature. 

The age of Lewis XIV. is often called the Augustan 
Age of French Literature. That name compares it with 
the time when under the rule and patron- , 

x Augustan Age 

age of Augustus, Roman literature reached of French 
its most polished if not its most original 
epoch, and when the masterpieces of most of the great 
Latin authors were written. The period is often made 
to include works which really belonged to earlier times. 
Nor did the system of State patronage begin with Lewis. 
Some of his predecessors had encouraged literature. To 
one of them, Cardinal Richelieu, France owes the esta- 
blishment of the Academy, which, itself to a great extent 
the creature of patronage, was intended in 
a sense to be the vehicle of the king's pa- 
tronage to others. Pensions were freely bestowed on 
authors, and literature was intended to become a branch 
of the civil service. The Academy was to draw up a code 
of laws for the literary, by producing treatises on rhetoric 
and poetics, and to compile a dictionary of the French 
language, which, in the seventeenth century, was assum- 
ing its present shape. Patronage certainly cannot create 



220 The Age of Anne. a.d. 1702- 

genius any more than rules can make a poet. It is 
within its power to promote culture ; but it will be found 
that its tendency is to dwarf genius. Despotism cannot 
give genius, but it can stifle it ; for really great men will 
not long endure to live in the atmosphere of a despotic 
court, and to shape their voices only to speech that is 
agreeable there. They may for a time be content to 
dedicate their works to a king who is their paymaster, 
and to let their dedications be fulsome. Racine died in 
disgrace because he spoke out about the miserable con- 
dition of the French peasantry, and Boileau left the 
Court saying, "What should I do there? I know not 
how to flatter." 

It is impossible to separate from the system of pa- 
tronage the most marked characteristic of the era, that 
everything must be done according to rule. 
All accord- jf patronage stifled genius on one side, rules 

ing to rule. r & & 

stifled it on the other. The drama was hide- 
bound by the doctrine of the three unities — of time, of 
place, and of action, fetters to which Shakespeare had 
never subjected his genius. It was an age in which 
poetry was reduced to an art, that is, a body of rules 
which can be taught. Boileau, in imitation of Horace, 
wrote the "Art of Poetry." Pope, in turn, in the so- 
called Augustan Age in England, copied Boileau as well 
as Horace in the " Essay on Criticism." 

An instructive lesson with respect to the age of 
Lewis XIV., is to be learnt in the fact that its great 

authors and artists fell within the first half 

Greatness in . 

first half of of it. The year 1688, which witnessed the 
English Revolution, divides the real reign 
of Lewis XIV., that is, the time during which he himself 
governed, into two equal halves. It has been noticed 
that almost all the great ornaments of the time died be- 



A.D. 1 714. Literature. 221 

fore this year. It would seem to follow that the effects 
of patronage are only spasmodic and not permanent. 
The literary greatness of the reign was over at the same 
time as its military successes ; and with the beginning 
of the new century, and in the general misery of the 
Spanish Succession War, the character of the literature 
changed. A new epoch had begun whose tone breathed 
rebellion against the previous spirit. 

It is, however, necessary to sketch in outline the 
prominent features of the literature of the whole reign, 
in order to understand both its results, and the rebellion 
against its influence. 

First, the reign was very strong in the drama, having, 
besides minor authors, three illustrious dramatists, 
Moliere, Corneille, and Racine, of whom the 
first wrote comedies, the other two chiefly 
tragedies. At first Moliere seems only to have had in 
view the amusement of an audience ; but he soon learnt 
that the poet should also teach. Whilst 
standing well with the Court he attacked, in 
an exquisitely ludicrous style, the follies and foibles of the 
day ; at one time the pedantic affectation of the learned 
women, at another the cumbrous and antiquated jargon 
of the doctors, then the pious hypocrite, the citizen who 
imitated the nobility, or the frivolous noble. Corneille 
has the title of Father of French Tragedy. 
He is distinguished for simplicity. He paints 
the conflict between private and public passions, the 
conflict between love and honour, or religion or duty. 
He drew both the subjects of his plays and his method 
of treatment from Spain ; whilst Racine who 
succeeded him drew his inspiration rather 
from ancient Greece. In his hands French tragedy was 
framed upon Greek models, and almost all his subjects 



222 The Age of Anne. a. d. 1702- 

are taken either from classical or from sacred antiquity. 
" Andromaque" was his first and " Athalie" his last play. 
His plays are remarkable for grace of expression, rhythm 
and correctness. He always conforms to the three 
unities, that there shall be no impossibilities on the stage, 
no asking the audience to pass over time or space. 

The age of Lewis XIV. is, secondly, famous for the 
development of French prose, and therein especially 
for the composition of letters and of me- 
moirs. The letters of Madame de Sevignb 
and the memoirs of the Due de Saint Szmon, chief cham- 
berlain at the King's Court, may be selected as repre- 
sentatives. The former are witty, tender, and always in 
good taste. The latter, which belong, perhaps, rather to 
a later age, are full of the gossip of this and the succeed- 
ing reign, every species of anecdote, everything small 
and great being recorded by a vivacious eye-witness. 

It was to be expected that theology would flourish ; but 

it was for the most part a courtly theology, and inspired 

by the Jesuits. The eloquence of the pulpit 

Theology. became very famous. Bossuet. Bishop of 

Bossuet. ' 1 

Meaux, was the chief of the preachers, and 
his excellence lay especially in funeral orations. Bossuet 
may be said to have applied to religion the teaching 
which Lewis inculcated in politics. With him all oppo- 
sition was wrong, whether it took the form of Protestant- 
ism and absolute revolt from the Church, or the minor 
form of holding different views within her pale. Such a 
revolt was shown in Pascal, who, after dis- 
playing a precocious and extraordinary ge- 
nius for mathematics, at an early age turned his attention 
to theology, and just before Lewis took up the reins of 
government, published his " Provincial Letters," a book 
which attacked the teaching and views of the Jesuits. 



A.d. 1714- Literature. 223 

Pascal belonged to a sect called the Jansenists, because 
its members held certain views first promulgated by a 
Bishop Janseniuson the subject of predestination. There 
was a fierce controversy between them and the Jesuits. 
But the latter having the ear of the Papal Court were 
enabled to procure from the Pope a Bull against their 
opponents. It was called from its first word, the Bull 
Unigenitus, dated September 1713, in which the Jansen- 
ists were condemned, and the king insisted on the ac- 
ceptance of the Bull throughout France. 

One of the leading theologians was Fenelon, Arch- 
bishop of Cambray. On account of the saintliness of his 
character he had been appointed tutor to 

, _ , ..r^/i-' Fenelon. 

the young Duke of Burgundy. Tele- 
maque " is a book which he wrote for the use of his pupil, 
and, under veil of describing antiquity, it contains a 
strong condemnation of the Government, as well as a 
sort of programme for reform, which his pupil would 
probably have carried out if he had reached the throne. 

As a result of the age of Lewis XIV. the 
French language acquired a great ascen- ^S^/ 
dency in Europe. It became the language gggj^ 
of diplomacy and of polite society. Its in- 
fluence upon English literature is well worth notice. 
Pope, the leading poet of the time, shows many traces 
of a study of French writers. Addison spent a long 
time in France, and one can see the same influence in 
his polished and easy style. 

After the peace of Utrecht, the current of influence 
seemed to pass the other way. Many Frenchmen visited 
England and conceived the greatest admira- French 
tion for the spirit of English politics, English ^Sds 
laws, and English society. It would be inspired by 

' England. 

hardly too much to say that some ot the 



224 The Age of Anne. a.d. 1702- 

seeds of the French Revolution were sown in their minds 
and the admiration first acquired, of which they after- 
wards gave such practical expression, of the way in 
which the English treated their kings in general, and 
Charles I. in particular 

When Lewis XIV. died, Voltaire was a young man 
just of age, and Jean Jacques Rousseau was in the nursery. 
Though the former never quite shook off his feeling of 
reverence for the king, one cannot help feeling that it 
was opposition to the spirit of the French Government 
and knowledge of its results that led both these thinkers 
and writers to fan the spirit of liberty. So that here, 
also, the Revolution was being prepared, though there 
were years and years of weary misgovernment before its 
outbreak. 

Section II. — English Literature. 

The reign of Queen Anne, likewise, is usually called 
the Augustan Age of English Literature. It was a time 
when England was as great in literature as 
Augustan \ n wan Writers of deeper tone and weightier 

English calibre have lived at other times ; but there is 

probably no period so short in which so 
many famous books have been given to the world, or in 
which forces have had their roots destined so powerfully 
to influence the future. There are many who regard 
the name as wholly inappropriate, for the Latin litera- 
ture was fostered by the judicious patronage of Augus- 
tus. However great may be the affection of posterity 
for "good Queen Anne," it cannot be included amongst 
her virtues that she cared for or helped literature. But 
Augustus was assisted in the exercise of his patronage 
by the taste and discrimination of his great minister 
Maecenas. Was there, then, a Maecenas in Queen 



A.D. 1 714. Literature. 225 

Anne's reign? Was there any influential subject who 
made it his pride and his pleasure to help men of letters ? 
The only subject who could be compared in extent of 
power to Maecenas was Marlborough ; and he did not 
care for poetry, and was nervously sensitive to the least 
attack on himself. 

But if there was no one great patron standing out 
above the rest, alike prominent and anxious to make the 
assistance of literature his glory, it would yet 

, _ . , , . t _ . Patronage 

be fair to say that the time of Queen Anne with many 
was, like the Augustan age, a time of patron- P atrons - 
age, a time, not of one, but of many patrons. There 
probably never was a time in which successful literature 
was so well rewarded : probably never a time in which 
the alliance was so close between politicians and literary 
men. Intimacy even must have been great when a poet 
like Prior, and a statesman like Bolingbroke, would 
write to and of each other as Matt and Harry. 

Pope was the representative poet of the age, and he is 
proud to boast of his friendly intercourse 
with Bolingbroke (who supplied him with the J™ 11 ^ 011 
subject-matter of one of his greatest poems), men with 

, , ,, . • ,, , » statesmen. 

and of the assistance that Peterborough 
gave him in gardening — 

There my retreat the best companions grace, 
Chiefs out of war, and statesmen out of place. 
There St. John mingles with my friendly bowl 
The feast of reason and the flow of soul ; 

And he, whose lightning pierced the Iberian lines, 
Now forms my quincunx, and now ranks my vines, 
Or tames the genius of the stubborn plain, 
Almost as quickly as he conquered Spain. 
No " statesman out of place " probably ever had no- 



226 The Age of An?ie. a. d. 1702- 

bier eulogy passed upon him than that with which Pope 
honoured Harley — 

A soul supreme in each hard instance tried, 
Above all pain, all passion, and all pride, 
The rage of power, the blast of public breath, 
The lust of lucre, and the dread of death. 

Alexander Pope was born in 1688, the year of the 
Revolution. His father was a London linen-draper, who, 
on retiring from business, went to live near 
Windsor. The boy was deformed, and al- 
most a dwarf: throughout his life he suffered a great 
deal from disease. An undercurrent of unhappiness, 
caused by his bodily ailments, and a nervous irritability, 
which is not uncommon with very short men, can be 
traced through all his life. Unable to engage in the 
sports of boyhood, he showed poetical talents at a very 
early age : 

I lisped in numbers, for the numbers came. 

So great was his reverence for Dryden, the poet of his 
boyhood, that, in the last year of the seventeenth cen- 
tury, when he was twelve years old, at his own express 
desire, he was taken up to London, to Wills' coffee- 
house, in order to see him. Dryden died in that very 
year. His mantle and a double portion of his spirit fell 
upon Pope. 

The following are his most famous works, given in 
the order in which they were composed: "Essay on 
Criticism," " Rape of the Lock," " Messiah," Translation 
of Homer's Iliad and part of the Odyssey, "Dunciad," 
" Essay on Man," "Imitations of Horace," and "Epis- 
tles." Most of these were written after the reign of 
Anne, at the time of whose death he was engaged in 
translating the Iliad. 



a.d. 1714- Literature. 227 

The " Essay on Criticism" may be said to be an imi- 
tation of the " Ars Poetica" of Horace, but there is this 
difference between the writers: Horace was 
an experienced and practised poet, Pope a criticism. " 
young man of twenty-three. Though the 
former may claim the palm for originality in the treat- 
ment of such a subject, honour must also be given to 
the genius of the young man, which enabled him to 
utter thoughts worthy of the wisdom of age. 

The "Rape of the Lock" is a playful poem, mock 
heroic. It has been called the true epic of the time. A 
young cavalier of the Court cut a lock of 
hair from off the head of a beautiful maid j^Pf of the 
of honour. The place that the gods occupy 
in epic poems, Pope supplies in this airy pleasantry with 
sylphs and gnomes, and the whole subject is treated in 
so graceful a style that the poem may serve as a model 
for this species of composition. 

On Pope's " Homer," his best-known but not his 
greatest work, his contemporary Bentley, the greatest 
classical critic of all time, has passed a criti- 
cism to which, even now, we can add 
nothing. " A very pretty poem, Mr. Pope, but please 
don't call it Homer." The sonorous dignity of the 
original and its natural freedom have vanished, and 
been replaced by the stiffness of an artificial style. But 
it is the work of a true poet, and, if it does not reproduce 
Homer, is yet well worth reading for its own sake. 

It is said that Lord Bolingbroke supplied Pope with 
the material out of which he composed the four epistles 
that form the "Essay on Man," a treatise 
on the relation of man to the universe, to ^ s 5 on 
himself, and to society, and on man's pur- 
suit of happiness. The matter is, however, certainly the 



228 The Age of Anne. a.d. 1702- 

least valuable portion of it ; as to treatment it may be 
regarded as Pope's masterpiece. The merits of Pope's 
poetry shine forth in it; these merits not 
ope s sty e. b em g originality or sympathy with nature, 
or insight into character, virtues which distinguish 
greater poets, but grace, smoothness, correctness, the 
perfection of taste. He pays infinite attention to the 
form of his verses, making the subject-matter a secon- 
dary consideration. His lines remind one of the exqui- 
site chiselling of a master sculptor. In few English 
poets can we find such melody of rhythm. Dr. Johnson 
compares his prose to that of Dryden in language which 
maybe applied also to their poems. "The style of 
Dryden is capricious and varied, that of Pope is cautious 
and uniform ; Dryden is sometimes vehement and rapid, 
Pope is always smooth, uniform, and gentle. Dryden's 
page is a natural field, rising into inequalities, and diver- 
sified by the varied exuberance of abundant vegetation ; 
Pope's is a velvet lawn, shaven by the scythe, and 
levelled by the roller." 

Pope's influence upon English poetry may be said to 

have lasted to the end of the century, and it cannot be 

regarded as beneficial. Poetry consists of 

Pope's in- two par ts — the outward form and the inward 

fluence. r 

meaning. Some writers have neglected one, 
some the other. The absence of heart and of nature in 
the poetry of the last century seems to be due to imita- 
tion of Pope. For his style is like Ulysses' bow, it re- 
quires a master's hand to make it really effective. 

The real strength, however, of the age of Anne lay 

not in poetry, but in prose ; and its prose, 
Party' still more than its poetry, influenced the 

politics. times that followe( j > an( j i s making its influ- 

ence still felt in our own day. There was a close alii- 



a.d. 1 714. Literature. 229 

ance between politics and literature, but politics took 
more than ever the form of party politics. A great de- 
velopment had taken place in parties, for not only was 
there the contest raging between Whigs and Tories, and 
side by side with it the sister contest between Low and 
High Church, but also there was a new aspect of the 
fight between the Ins and the Outs. Before the end of 
the reign it came to be understood that all the ministers 
should be of one party, whilst the other was in opposi- 
tion. This gave a new — almost a pecuniary — interest to 
the contest. 

If there was no Augustus and no Maecenas, party 
spirit took their place. The elections to the 
House of Commons were all-important, and Patronage 

r by parties. 

the question arose — How were they to be 
influenced ? Now-a-days, elections still being of impor- 
tance, more influence is due to the speeches of a few 
eminent men, delivered in Parliament or in public 
places, and to the articles in the newspapers, than to the 
views of candidates at each election. But at the outset 
of Queen Anne's reign there were hardly any newspa- 
pers and no reporters. Nay, more, there was a law 
against reporting, and valuable debates are in conse- 
quence wholly lost to history. Even to our own times 
the practice lasted that any member might exclude re- 
porters by merely calling the Speaker's attention to their 
presence. Members of Parliament might be influenced 
by speeches ; those outside could be reached only by 
pamphlets. Able pens were therefore in demand for 
pamphlet writing, and able men, whether they liked it 
or not, were compelled to declare for a party. It is quite 
true that the best literary men protested against this 
compulsion. Swift made it a point in his satire of the 
contest between the Big endians and Little-endians. 



230 TJie Age of Anne. a.d. 1702- 

Addison humorously tells of the boy who, asking his 
way, was abused by one as a Popish cur in asking for 
St. Ann's lane, and cuffed for irreverence when he asked 
for Ann's Lane. Pope protests vehemently that the 
matters are not worth the fighting for : 

" For forms of government let fools contest, 
Whate'er is best administered is best. 1 ' 

Pamphlets were not a new invention. Our great 
Milton during the middle stage of his life was a pam- 
phleteer. But the profusion with which 
pamphlets were poured forth was new, and 
formed a marked characteristic of the time. 

We are so much accustomed to our daily papers that 
we sometimes wonder how people used to get on without 
them. At Athens of old they supplied the want by con- 
versation in the market-place. In Queen Anne's reign 
it was done partly by pamphlets, partly by clubs and 
coffee-houses, which were beginning to have considerable 
influence on political and social life. 

The greatest pamphleteer, probably the greatest genius 
of his time, was Jonathan Swift. He was of English 
extraction, but born and educated in Dublin. 
At the age of twenty-one, in the year of the 
Revolution, he entered the service of Sir William Temple, 
a distant kinsman, apparently in the capacity of secre- 
tary. His position seems to have been unpleasant to 
him, for he left it, and took holy orders ; but he returned 
to it again, and though not proud of the connexion, yet 
he edited Temple's works when his patron died. Tem- 
ple had retired from political life, but was often consulted 
by William III., when the king wanted an opinion less 
interested than that of the partisans who surrounded 
him. King William taught Swift how to cut asparagus 



A. D. 1 7 14. . Literature. 231 

in the Dutch fashion, and offered him a cornetcy in a 
troop of horse. It is said also that his name was entered 
in William's note-book for preferment ; but William died, 
and Swift's own conduct prevented preferment coming 
from the king's successor. 

His first work was the "Tale of a Tub," a very ludi- 
crous story of three brothers, Peter, Jack, and Martin, 
who represent respectively the Roman Catho- 
lic, the Calvinist, and the Lutheran religion. -^aieofa 
The story is told of their attempts to carry 
out their father's wishes in agreement, and of their 
quarrel at the Reformation. The whole tendency of the 
book was to cast ridicule upon religion. 

Failing in his efforts for promotion, Swift changed his 
party, and went over to the Tories, who received him 
with open arms ; but the queen would not consent to 
the wish of her ministers to make him a bishop. 
Ultimately he was appointed Dean of St. Patrick's, 
Dublin. 

He was naturally of a sour temper, and the continued 
disappointments of his life made him very bitter. He is 
a furious assailant, sparing no insult to gain his point. 
He seems to have had little heart. His humour is won- 
derful, such that no English writer has ever equalled it. 
Ireland alone could have produced it. One could desire 
no addition to it but a little kindliness. 

His pamphlets are indispensable to the historian of 
the reign of Queen Anne. Their name is Legion. One 
of them probably had greater influence than 
any other pamphlet ever had. When the ^jyJS.?' 
Whigs were turned out of office, the public 
opinion in England, especially in the City, was still 
strongly in favour of the prosecution of the war. The 
effect of the " Conduct of the Allies," showing that the 



2 52 The Age of A fine. . a.d. 1702- 

English people were paying the allies that they might be 
allowed to fight their battles for them, was magical in 
turning the tide of opinion. Stocks fell when the Whigs 
were turned out ; stocks were unaffected by the cessation 
of arms which showed that negotiations were genuine. 
In King George's reign Swift wrote " Drapier'sLetters," 

against a new Government Coinage, and the 
"Draper's result was that the coinage was withdrawn, 

whilst Swift became the darling of the Irish 
people. 

But of course Swift's really greatest work is "Gulliver's 
Travels," which may be described as a satire upon 

humanity, with contemporary allusions. In 
TravUs^'* ^ e v °y a & e to Lilliput is represented the 

littleness of mankind, as seen by beings of 
a larger growth. In Brobdingnag the absurdities of men 
are shown, seen, as it were, through a magnifying glass. 
Then Gulliver travels to other lands, wherein learning 
and science are satirised, and at length Swift bursts 
forth into terrible descriptions of the Yahoos, which read 
like a savage attack on mankind. 

Swift outlived his genius, and before his death sank 

into absolute idiocy. The story is told how 
death' S towards the end of his life he took up one 

of his own books and said, "Good God, 
what a genius I had when I wrote that book! " 

So Swift expired, a driveller and a show. 

The following epitaph in St. Patrick's Cathedral he 
composed for himself: — 

Hie jacet Jonathan Swift, S. T. P. 

ubi sosva indignatio cor ulterius lacerare nequit. 

Abi, viator, imitare, si poteris. 

Swift was the great Tory pamphleteer, famous as the 



a.d. 1 714. Literature. 233 

author of " Gulliver." A writer on the Whig side was 
none other than the author of "Robinson Crusoe." 

Daniel De Foe was born in 1661, the year after the 
Restoration. His real name was Foe, for though he 
had this strange fancy for prefixing de to his 
name, he was a true-born Englishman. His 
father was a London butcher, a Whig and a Dissenter, 
and he was himself engaged in business as a hosier ; but 
his strong sympathy with that extreme section of the 
Whig party which the Dissenters formed soon drew him 
from commerce, in which he was unsuccessful, to litera- 
ture. He had a very facile pen, and it often got him 
into trouble; but neither pillory nor imprisonment could 
restrain him from writing again. As a faithful and ex- 
treme Whig he had joined Monmouth, and taken refuge 
abroad after the defeat of Sedgemoor. He was a great 
friend of the Glorious Revolution, and during the reign 
of William was always ready to defend the king and his 
cause, even with respect to acts which were unpopular. 
His career as a pamphleteer may be said to have begun 
one year before the Revolution, and to have ended about 
a year after the end of Queen Anne's reign. The two 
most famous of his pamphlets are " The True-born 
Englishman," which appeared in the former, and " The 
Shortest Way with Dissenters," in the latter. 

" The True born Englishman" is a poem in which De 
Foe defends King William. The verse is not melodious, 
and may be said in parts to descend to doggerel ; but its 
sterling sense caused a very large sale. Con- 
sidering the services that William and his w 1 S 1 !" bom ,» 

o Englishman.' 

Dutch soldiers had conferred upon England, 
even a true-born Englishman can forgive him for liking 
his old friends better than his new subjects. The former 
at any rate had been true to him. 

R 



234 The Age of Anne. a.d. 1702- 

The foreigners have faithfully obeyed him, 

And none but Englishmen have e'er betrayed him. 

The writer vigorously maintains the principles of the 
Revolution against the tyranny whicii James had wished 
to establish. The claims of kings should be broad-based 
upon their people's will. 

Titles are shadows, crowns are empty things, 
The good of subjects is the end of kings. 

The " Shortest Way with Dissenters " was a pamphlet 
called forth by the Occasional Conformity Bill. The 

Church party, knowing that the queen was 
Way with on their side, were anxious to persecute the 

Dissenters, until they were entirely rid ot 
them. They wished legislation to run in the groove of 
Charles II. 's reign, not in that of William's. De Foe 
wrote under the disguise of a Churchman, and his short- 
est way was this : " If one severe law were made and 
punctually executed, that whoever was found at a con- 
venticle should be banished the nation, and the preacher 
be hanged, we should soon see an end of the tale." The 
Churchmen were delighted, and De Foe had to publish 
an explanation of his sarcasm, at which they were pro- 
portionately enraged. The result was the pillory and 
imprisonment. The pamphlet is really an argument in 
favour of complete toleration, for he also attacks his 
own friends the Dissenters, because when they had the 
power they did not respect their opponents. Now, like 
the cock in the stable, they are quite willing to propose 
to the horses, "let us all keep our legs quiet." 

De Foe's greatest work is, of course, " Robinson 

Crusoe." He was nearly sixty when he wrote it. It is 

founded upon the adventures of Alexander 

Crusoe." Selkirk, a seaman who had been marooned 



A.d. 1 714. Literature. 235 

upon the island of Juan Fernandez, that is to say, 
put on shore by his captain and left there on pre- 
tence that he had committed some great crime. The 
adventures of Robinson Crusoe, his shipwreck, his life 
upon the island, his attempts to provide himself with the 
common necessaries of life, his meeting with Friday, the 
boat too big to launch, and ultimately the escape, have 
delighted many generations of readers, young as well as 
old. Written in an exceedingly simple style, it has all 
the air of a real narrative. 

But the most famous Whig writer of the time, and one 
whose life is closely mixed up with its history, is Joseph 
Addison. He was educated at the Charter- 
house, which was then, and indeed until late 
years, a London school, but has now been moved into 
the country. A modern novelist, himself educated at 
the same school, writes with great pride of Addison, as 
the head boy at the Charter-house. Addison distin- 
guished himself at school, and went thence to Oxford, 
where he obtained a fellowship at Magdalen College. 
He had a great reputation for Latin scholarship and es- 
pecially for Latin verses. He also tried English verses, 
and some of them arresting the attention of Lord Som- 
ers, that enlightened nobleman procured Addison a pen- 
sion, wherewith he travelled over France and Italy. He 
stayed a long time in France, and the influence of a close 
acquaintance with French literature can be plainly traced 
in Addison's style. On King William's death the pen- 
sion ceased, and he returned to England. He published 
an account of his travels, which was not successful, and 
for some years Addison lived in poor, but dignified and 
contented retirement in lodgings in the Haymarket, up 
two pairs of stair?. When the battle of Blenheim was 
fought, its glory w'j ung by many poetasters in miser- 



236 The Age of Anne. a.d. 1702- 

able verses, which seemed to the ministers to mar it. 
Godolphin, the Prime-Minister, did not know to whom 
to turn. A Whig nobleman suggested an application to 
Addison, on condition that all due respect be shown in 
making it. The Chancellor of the Exchequer was sent 
as a deputation to Addison, who consented to write, and 
when the Chancellor came again the poem was com- 
pleted as far as the following passage : — 

But O my Muse ! what numbers wilt thou find 

To sing the furious troops in battH join'd ? 

Methinks I hear the drum's tumultuous sound 

The victor's shouts and dying groans confound; 

The dreadful burst of cannon rend the skies, 

And all the thunder of the battle rise. 

'Twas then great Marlborough's mighty soul was proved, 

That, in the shock of charging hosts unmoved, 

Amid confusion, horror, and despair, 

Examined all the dreadful scenes of war: 

In peaceful thought the field of death surveyed, 

To fainting squadrons sent the timely aid, 

Inspired repulsed battalions to engage, 

And taught the doubtful battle where to rage. 

So when an angel, by divine command, 

With rising tempests shakes a guilty land 

(Such as of late o'er pale Britannia passed), 

Calm and serene he drives the furious blast ; 

And, pleased the Almighty's order to perform, 

Rides in the whirlwind and directs the storm. 

This simile carried the minister away with enthusiasm, 
and the same feeling was quickly spread throughout the 
country when the whole poem called " The Campaign " 
was published. All the critics allow that the merit of the 
rest of the poem is by no means equal to that of this 
passage, and that its great praise is that it recognises 



a.d. 1 714. Literature. 237 

the truth, that in a modern battle the general does not 
engage hand to hand with the enemy, and slay thousands 
with his own sword, but is the directing mind of the 
whole. 

By this poem Addison's career was made. He was 
appointed in turn Commissioner of Appeals, Secretary 
to Legation at Hanover, Under-Secretary of State, Secre- 
tary for Ireland, and ultimately, three years after the 
accession of King George I., Secretary of State. He 
married the Countess of Warwick, to whose son he had 
formerly been tutor, and lived at Holland House, which 
has been for so many generations the haunt of a brilliant 
literary society. 

The character of Addison has made him almost the 
model of a literary man. He had only one weakness, 
inability to resist the temptation of wine, and 
that was, perhaps, the fault of his age rather 
than of himself. He was humane, genial, modest, and, 
in the best sense of the word, religious. The wits of his 
day used to call him "a parson in a tye-wig" — the lay- 
man's wig — as we might say, " a clergyman in a black 
tie : " indeed, the benevolent morality of his writings and 
their earnest Christianity have probably had more effect 
for good than many sermons. 

Pope quarrelled with Addison, and inserted in one of 
his poems the following magnificent declamation against 
him : — 

Peace to all such ! but were there one whose fires 
True genius kindles, and fair fame inspires ; 
Bless'd with each talent and each art to please, 
And born to write, converse, and live with ease ; 
Should such a man, too fond to rule alone, 
Bear, like the Turk, no brother near the throne, 
View him with scornful, yet with jealous eyes, 



238 The Age of Anne. a. d. 1702- 

And hate for arts that caused himself to rise : 
Damn with faint praise, assent with civil leer, 
And, without sneering, teach the rest to sneer; 
Willing to wound, and yet afraid to strike, 
Just hint a fault, and hesitate dislike ; 
Alike reserved to blame or to commend, 
A timorous foe, and a suspicious friend ; 
Dreading e'en fools, by flatterers besieged. 
And so obliging that he ne'er obliged ; 
Like Cato, give his little senate laws, 
And sit attentive to his k»own applause ; 
While wits and Templars every sentence raise. 
And wonder with a foolish face of praise — 
Who but must laugh, if such a man there be? 
Who would not weep, if Atticus were he ? 

It is said that in the first draft, Addison's name stood 
without even the veil of " Atticus." There can, how- 
ever, be no doubt that this attack is very unfair, and 
proceeded from the spiteful venom of the poet. It is 
quite true that Addison had a band of faithful admirers, 
to one of whom we shall presently advert. But jealousy 
was not Addison's failing, though it was Pope's. 

The allusion to Cato would show that the passage was 
intended for Addison, even if there were no direct evi- 
dence. Cato was the name of Addison's 
single tragedy. It was first acted in 1713, 
the month after the Peace of Utrecht was concluded. A 
great deal of it had been written much earlier, but the 
play was only recently finished. Pope, then friendly to 
Addison, wrote a prologue to it, and as Addison surrend- 
ered all the profit of the performance to the actors, they 
did their utmost to make it a success. It was a time 
when party feeling ran very high. The Whigs ap- 
plauded every passage in praise of liberty, and the 
Tories, not to be outdone, applauded also. Marl- 



a.d. 1 714. Literature. 239 

borough's application to be made captain-general for life 
being still fresh in men's memories, Lord Bolingbroke 
made a capital hit by sending for the chief actor between 
the acts, and presenting him with a purse of 50/. " for 
defending the cause of liberty so well against a perpetual 
dictator." The saying went round the Tory benches 
that the Whigs meant to make as good a present, when 
they could accompany it with as good a speech. The 
play is constructed after French models, and is certainly 
neither admired nor read in the present day ; it is too 
frigid. But a few lines from it still pass as the current 
coin of every-day quotation. 

A fellow-worker on the same side, and intimately con- 
nected with Addison, was Mr. Richard Steele. They 
were educated at the same school, and were 
contemporaries and friends at Oxford. But 
whilst Addison was steady, and distinguished himself, 
Steele was idle. At length, no longer able to bear the 
restraints of Oxford life, he ran away and enlisted as a 
private in the Blues. Later, he obtained a cornetcy, and 
we find him afterwards a captain in the Fusiliers. Steele's 
name, like Swift's, was down in William's note-book for 
promotion; but William's death destroyed the value of 
the entry. It has been said of Steele that he spent his 
life in "sinning and repenting," Whilst notorious for 
his gaiety and the dissipation of his life, he astonished 
the town by bringing out a little book called the "Chris- 
tian Hero," which breathes the very spirit of piety. 

When his party was in power, places were found for 
him, and at length Sir Richard Steele was appointed 
editor of the " Gazette." It occurred to him, «< Tatler ... 

that the early information which he thus 
obtained might be made of use in a paper, and that the 
dulness of news might be relieved by an occasional essay 



340 The Age of Anne. a.d 1702- 

on some subject not political. This idea took form in 
the "Tatler," which, when the Whigs lost office and 
Steele his place, was merged afterwards in the more 
famous "Spectator," in which Steele received 
great assistance from Addison. The share 
which Addison and Steele had in this constitutes their 
chief claims upon the notice of posterity. It was a small 
sheet, published three times a week, at the price of one 
penny, containing a short essay on two of the pages and 
news on the others. 

The subjects of the essays wee infinitely varied : now 
a criticism on manners, now on the hoops worn by ladies, 
on their absurd practice of wearing patches on the face, 
or on cherry-coloured ribbons. These lighter subjects 
would be matched by reflections on Westminster Abbey, 
on the Exchange, on the Bank, or by criticisms of de- 
cided value on Milton's " Paradise Lost," and on the old 
ballad of " Chevy Chase." But a sort of thread of con- 
nexion was given to the papers by the character of the 
Spectator, a quiet observer of men and and manners, 
and by the account of the club, with its types of English 
society of the day, the first sketch of which is due to 
Steele. The character of Sir jR oger de Coverley, its lead- 
ing member, the representative of the English country 
gentleman, was adopted and improved by Addison, who 
wrote all the later papers about him, until Steele again 
tried his hand, placing the old knight in improper com- 
pany ; and to prevent such a liberty being taken again, 
Addison wrote a very touching account of his death. 

The influence of the " Spectator " has been very re- 
markable. One may regard the modern newspapers and 
the modern magazine as its children. For 

Influence on , • ... • .,, 

the future. newspapers combine criticism with news, 
magazines present essays without the news. 



A.D. I7I4- 



Literature. 241 



Surely the most significant feature of modern literature 
is to be found in the merit and profusion of its periodi- 
cals that are poured forth daily, weekly, monthly, from 
the press. Their transparent fault is that they are tran- 
sitory ; but the gain is, that knowledge which once re- 
mained upon the mountain-height, is now brought down 
to water the plain. Who shall measure their influence ? 






INDEX. 



ANN 

ACADEMY, French establishment 
of, 218 

Addison, Joseph, his sketch of the 
Exchange, 200; his dream, 215; 
early life, 235 ; his character, 237 

Adolphus, Gustavus, 156, 158 
" Ahlden, Princess of, 187 

Aix-la-Chapelle, peace of, 18 

Albigenses, the, 50 

Allies, the, campaigns in Germany 
and elsewhere, 44 ; defeat the 
French at Blenheim, 65 ; victory at 
Ramillies, 79 ; Madrid relinquisher 1 
by, 88 ; the year of victory, 76-89 ; 
the year of disaster, 89-95 ; defeated 
at Almanza, 91 ; results of their 
defeat 93; fighting in the Low 
Countries 95-109 ; victory at Oude- 
narde, 98 ; overtures for peace by 
France, 102 ; terms insisted on by, 
102 ; victory at Malplaquet, 108 ; 
later campaigns in Spain, 109-119 ; 
victory at Almenara and Saragossa, 

113. 114 ; advance and enter Madrid, 

114. 115 ; retreat to Toledo, 116 ; re- 
turn to Catalonia, 116; English de- 
feated at Birhuega, 117; battle of 
Villa Viciosa, 118 ; end of the war, 
131 ; separation of English troops 
from, 136; defeated at Denain, 137. 

Almanza, battle of, 91 ; the positions 
of the armies and total defeat of the 
allies, 92; results of defeat, 93; 
effects of, 109 

Almenara, battle of, 113 

Anderkirk taken, 79 

Anne, daughter of James II., Queen 
of England, succeeds to the throne, 
25 ; her character, 25 ; her children 
and husband, 26 ; development of 



BEN 
English parties in her reign, 120; 
her impartial views, 122 ; her first 
Tory ministry, 122; gradually alie- 
nated rom the Duchess of Marlbo- 
rough, 126 ; change of her ministry, 
127 ; dispute as to her successor, 
171 ; the last week of her reign, 
quarrels in the ministry, 183 
.ntwerp falls into the hands of Marl- 
borough, 80 

" Arbuthnot's History of John Bull," 
a political satire on the dishonour 
to Spain, 7 

Architecture, flourishing condition of, 
201 

Assiento contract, the, 141 

Ath, siege of, 81 

Augsburg, league of, 24 

Augustan age, of French literature, 
218 ; of English literature, 223 

Augustus, Ernest, Duke of Bruns- 
wick-Luneburg, 179 

Austria, trouble in, 57 



BADEN, peace of, 140 
Barcelona taken, 73 • besieged 
by the French, 85; stormed and 
taken, 193 

Bath, Beau Nash's improvements in, 
203 

Bavaria, Elector of, his alliance with 
France, 40; at the battle of Ramil- 
lies, 77 ; reinstated, 141, 142 

Bavarians, routed at Schellenberg, 60 

Beachy Head, battle of, 24 

Beau Nash, 203 

Beer, enormous consumption of, 210 

Benbow, Admiral, 46 

Bentinck, Duke of Portland, 6 



243 



244 



Index. 



CAM 

Berwick, Duke of, commands the 
French forces, 49 ; enters Madrid, 
88 ; defeats the allies at Almanza, 92 

Black Death, the, 204 

Blenheim, battle of, preparations for 
battle, 62 ; description of the ground, 
62 ; position of the armies, 63 ; the 
battle begins, 63; the result, 67 

Blenheim Palace, near Woodstock,203 

Bohemia, Elector of, 34 

Bolingbroke, Lord {see St. John, 
Henry; 

Bonn taken, 44 

Bossuet, Bishop of Meaux, 222 

Bouchain taken, 134 

Boumers, Marshal, his defence of 
Lille, 99 ; capitulates, 101 ; f erves 
under Villars in Flanders, 105; 
named to the command at Malpla- 
quet, 108 

Brabant, duchy of, claims to, 16 ; 
inclining to French, 96 

Brandenburg, Elector of, 34 

Brihuega, battle of, 117 

Bristol, proportion of population to 
London, 196 

Bruges taken, 81 

Brussels falls into the hands of Marl- 
borough, 80 

Burgundy, Duke of, commands in 
Flanders, 97 ; defeated at Oude- 
narde, 99 ; his education, 189 ; his 
marriage, 189 ; his death, 189 

Burgundy, Duchess of, her death, 
189 

Burnet, Bishop of Salisbury, 26 ; 
credited with the improvement of 
the position of the clergy, 218 

Byng, Admiral Sir George, 153 



CABINET government, 128, 129 
Cadiz, English expedition 
against, 46 
Calendar, change in Russian, 162 
Camisards, the, rebellion of, 52 ; per- 
secuted by Dragonades, 54; their 
retaliation, 55 ; severity used to put 
down the rebellion, 55 ; appeal to 
foreign governments, 55 ; end of 
the war, 56 ; their bravery, 57 
Campaign of 1702, 42 ; of 1704, 58 ; 
of 1705, 68; of 1706, 76; of 1707, 
89; of 1708, 96; of 1709, 104; of 



1710, 133 

Campaign, the," 236-7 



CON 

Carleton, Captain, 73 

Castilians, the, 7, 115 

Catalans, the, 73 

Catalonia subdued, 74 

Catalans, the, 193 

Catherine, Czarina, rescues the Rus- 
sian army, 172; married to Peter 
the Great, 172 

Cato, 238 

Cavalier, Jean, his daring character, 
52 ; his chivalry and uprightness, 
54 ; his later life, 57 

Cevennes, the, 22 ; rising in, 50-58 

Charles II. of England, secret tieaty 
with Louis XIV., 17; his opinion 
of Prince George of Denmark, 26 

Charles II. of Spain, claimants to the 
throne on his death, 2 ; his will, 9 

Charles V., Emperor, 1 

Charles XII., King of Sweden, 
visited by Marlborough. 90; his 
enemies, 164 ; beginning of his reign, 
165; his character, 165; subdues 
Denmark and Poland, 166 ; defeats 
the Russians at Narva, 166 ; arbiter 
of Europe, 168 ; his campaign 
against Russia, 169 ; defeated by 
Peter the Great at Pultowa, 170 ; 
overpowered at Bender, 173 ; his 
death, 173 
Charles Emanuel, son of Victor 

Amadeus, 195 
Charles the Archduke, claimant to 
the throne of Spain, 4; joins Lord 
Peterborough, 70 ; refuses to enter 
Madrid, 88 ; takes part in the cam- 
paign of 1710, 113; enters Madrid, 
115 ; becomes Emperor, 133; holds 
out against the peace of Utrecht, 
139 ; his later policy, 194 ; his death, 

x 95 

Church, High and Low, origin of, 121 

Churches of England and Scotland, 
unaffected by the Union, 147 

Churchill, Lord John {see Marl- 
borough, Duke of) 

Claret, a favourite wine in England 
at this time, 212 

Clergy, the, their position, 218 

Coal-fields, 209 

Coffee, introduction of, into England, 
211 

Cologne, Archbishop of, 35 ; Elector 
of, 41 

Commerce, increase in, 200 

" Conduct of the Allies," 231 

Continental war, the, 24 



Index. 



245 



ENG 
Corn, the staple produce of England, 

208 
Corneille, 220 
Cotton, importation of, 209 
Cremona, victory of Prince Eugene 

at, 45 _ 

"Criticism, Essay on,'' 227 
Cromwell, Oliver, his anticipated 

union with Scotland, 145 
Cutts, Lord, 64 



DARIEN Company, the, 8; pro- 
posed dissolution of, 147. 

Daun, Marshal, 83,93 

Defoe, Daniel, his character and 
books, 233 

Denain, battle of, 137 

Dendermonde, siege of, 81 

Denmark, her territory on the shbres 
of the Baltic, 155 

Dover, treaty of, 18 

Dragonades, 54 

Drama, French, the, 221 

" Drapier's Letters." 232 

Drunkenness in the eighteenth cen- 
tury, 213 

Dryden, compared with Pope, 228 

Dutch, application of the word, 35 ; 
their anxiety for peace, 96 ; effect 
of the war on, 142 



ECONOMIC condition of the peo- 
ple of England, 195 

Election, general, of 1710, 131 

Electors, th *, how they ranged them- 
selves, 34 

Elizabeth, sifter of Charles I., her 
descendants, 177 

England, indignation against William 
III. in, 8; foreign policy in the 
seventeenth century, 17; formation 
of league with Holland and Swe- 
den, 18 ; revolution of 1688, 23 ; de- 
claration of war, 42 ; victory at 
Schellenberg, 60 ; victory over the 
French at Blenheim, 65; defeats 
the French at Ramillico. 80 ; troops 
separated from the allies, 136; her 
gains by the war of Spanish succes- 
sion, 140 ; social and economic con- 
dition of the people at this time, 
195-218 ; compared with other Eu- 
ropean nations, 209 ; un ; on with 
Scotland (see Union with Scotland) 

English Literature, 224-241 



FRE 

Equivalent, the, 47 

Eugene of Savoy, Prince, his cha- 
racter and intimacy with Marl- 
borough, 32 ; his victory at Cre- 
mona, 45 ; his meeting with Marl- 
borough, 59; his position in the 
battle of Blenheim, 63, 64; his 
attack on Lutzingen, 66 ; marches 
to Turin, 82 ; his victory at Turin, 
84; besieges Toulon, 94; joins 
Marlborough in the battle of Ou- 
denarde. 97 ; besieges Lille, 99 ; 
wounded at Malplaquet, 108 ; his 
mission to England, 135 ; separated 
from Ormond, 136 

Evelyn, John, 161 

Exchange, the, 199, 200 



FENELON, Archbishop of Cam- 
bray, 223 ; his " Adventures of 
Telemachus," 189 

Feodor, 158 

Finland, falls into the hands of Rus- 
sia, 171 

Flag, national, changes in, 149 

France, her position at the com- 
mencemtnt of the eighteenth cen- 
tury, 4; injuries caused to, by the 
revocation of the Edict of Nantes, 
21 ; her chance against the 
league, 40 ; her object in making the 
campaign of 1704, 58; defeated at 
Blenheim, 65 ; defeated at Ramillies, 
80; commences the siege of Tuiin, 
82 ; demoralization of troops, 84 ; 
defeated at Turin, 84 ; defeats the 
allies at Almanza, 91 ; her endea- 
vours to win Brabant back, 96; 
defeated by the allies at Oudenarde, 
97 ; public misery in, 99 ; intolerable 
proposal by the allies and appeal to 
the people, 103 ; and the answer to 
it, 104; troops withdrawn fiom 
Spain, 112 ; victory at Denain, 137 ; 
effect of the war on, 141 

Frederick Augustus, the Strong, of 
Poland, 164 ; defeated by Charles 
XII., 167 

Frederick, Elector of Brandenburg, 

Frederick, the Elector Palatine, 34 ; 

178 
Frederick, King of Denmark, 164; 

defeated by Charles XII., 166 
Fredericshall. siege of, 173 
French Literature, 218-224 
French prose, development of, 1*22 



246 



Index. 



HES 

GALWAY, Earl of, in Portugal, 
48 ; enters Madrid, 86 ; junction, 
with Peterborough at Guadalaxara, 
88 ; defeated at Almanza, 02 ; his 
letter to Marlborough regarding his 
defeat, 92 ; appointed to the com- 
mand in Portugal, no 

George L, Elector of Hanover, pro- 
claimed King of England, 185 ; his 
early life, 186 ; his bravery, 186; a 
good Elector, 186 ; unpopular: 
could not speak English, 186 ; 
phlegmatic, 186 ; his wife, 187 ; a 
good king for England, 187 

George II., son of George I., 187 

George, prince of Denmark, marries 
Anne, 26 ; appointed Lord Hieh 
Admiral, 27; his sympathy with 
the Occasional Conformity Bill, 123 

Germany, weakness of, 14 ; campaign 
in, 44-45 

Gertruydenburg, conference at, 139 

Ghent taken, 81 

Gibraltar taken by the English, 49 

Godolphin, appointed Lord High 
Treasurer, 31, 122 ; his character, 
31 ; goes over to the Whig party, 
123; loses favour with Anne, 128; 
dismissal from office, 131 ; his 
death, 135 

Grand alliance of the Hague, the, n, 
24; its component parts, 31-41; 
progress of, 36 

Guadalaxara, junction of Galway 
and Peterborough at, 88 

Guiscard, Marquis of, assails Harley, 

132 
"Gulliver's Travels," 232. 



H 



AGUE, the, conference of, 102, 



Hampden, John, 188 

Hanover, Electoral Prince of, 98 

Hanoverian succession secured, 185 

Hapsburg, House of, 33 

Harley, Robert his ministry, 127 
as Secretary of State, 128 ; as chief 
of the Tory party, 132 ; attack on 
his life, 132 ; made Earl of Oxford, 
133 ; dismissed from office, 183 ; 
lines from Pope on, 225 

Heinsius, Anthony, Pensionary, a 
friend of Marlborough, 32 

Henry of Navarre, 21 

Hesse, Prince of, 70 ; his death, 72 ; 
his successor invests Mons, 107 

High Church, origin of, 122 



LAG 

Hill, Abigail, in favour with Annt, 
126 ; marries Mr. Masham, 127 ; 
(see Masham, Mrs.) 

Hill, Colonel, commands an expe- 
tion against Quebec, 134 

Hoch8tadt, battle of, 45 

Holland, invasion of, 18; formation 
of league with Holland and Swe- 
den, 18 ; cutting of the dykes, 19 ; 
application of the word, 36; de« 
cline of her influence in Europe, 143 

Holstein, Duke of, 166 

" Homer," 227 

Hooke, Colonel, 151 

Horace, compared with Pope, 227 

Hudson's Bay Territory, acquired by 
England, 140 

Huguenots, effect of the revocation 
of the Edict of Nantes, 21 ; perse- 
cution and emigration, 22 ; geo- 
graphy of their country, 50 

Hungary, its condition during the 
war of the Spanish succession, 57- 
58; revolt in, 58 

Huy, fortress of, taken, 44 

TNGOLSTADT fortress, 61 

J. Innsbruck captured by the Ba- 
varians, 45 

Italy, North, war in, 45 ; campaign 
in, 77 ; the allied cause in, 82 

Ivan, 158 

JACOBITES, the, rising of, 151 ; 
their real strength, 180; their con- 
nection with the Tories, 180 

James II., King of England, 10, 23 

James Stuart, Francis Edward, sur- 
named the Pretender, his character 
151, 152 ; Jacobite r sing in favour 
of, 151 ; acknowledged as king by 
Lewis XIV., 152 

Jennings, Sarah, wife of the Duke of 
Marlborough, 27 

Joseph, Electoral Prince, claimant to 
the throne of Spain, 4 ; his death 6 

Joseph, succeeds his father Leopold 
I. as emperor, 34; his death, 133 

Junto, the, 125 

KAISERSWERTH, siege of, 43 
Kidd, Captain, 125 
Kufstein, fortress of, captured by the 
Bavarians, 45 

LABOURERS, statue of, 205 
La Gudina, battle of, 1x2 



Index. 



247 



LIT 

LaDdau taken, 45 ; retaken, 45 

Landrecies, siege of, 137 

Law, Scotch, not changed by the 
Union act, 149 

Leczinski, Stanislaus, elected King of 
Poland, 168 

Leopold, emperor, 34 

Lewis XIV. , renounces his rights to 
the throne of Spain, 2 ; his power 
in Europe, 4 ; his quarrels with 
William of Orange, 5 ; his nego- 
tiations with William of Orange, 
6; his mistaken policy, 9, 10; 
claims the Netherlands, 10 ; his 
reign, 13; his ambition, 14; his 
character, 15; lays claim to the 
duchy of Brabant, 16; secret treaty 
with Charles II., 18; at war with 
Holland, 19 ; the title of " Great " 
bestowed on him, 19; his three 
symptoms of madness, 20; seizure 
of Strassburg, and revocation of 
the Edict of Nantes, 21 ; ravaging 
of the Palatinate, 23 ; " Hereditary 
Foe of the Holy Empire," 34 ; op- 
poses the Duke of Savoy, 38 ; cam- 
paign of 1704, 58 ; his overtures for 
peace, 102 ; his appeal to the people 
of France concerning the terms of 
the allies, 103; the answer to it, 
104 ; withdraws his troops from 
Spain, 112 ; his offers to the allies, 
138 ; his new proposals, 139 ; his 
death, 187; events in England 
parallel with his life, 188: troubles 
at the end of his reign, 188 ; joy at 
his death, 191 ; disputes regarding 
the regent on his death, 191 

Lewis XV., succeeds to the throne of 
France, 190; commencement of 
reign contrasted with that of Lewis 
XIV., 190-191 

Lewis, Prince of Baden, 36 ; takes 
Landau, 45; his disputes with 
Marlborough, 60 

Lewis the Dauphin, his death, 188 

Liege taken, 43 

Lille, siege of. 101 ; surrenders, 101 
"Literature, English, Augustan age of, 
223 ; connexion of literary men 
with statesmen, 225; alliance with 
politics, 228, 229 

Literature, French, Augustan age of, 
218 ; greatness m first half of reign, 
220; influence on English litera- 
ture, 223 ; afterwards inspired by 
England, 223 

"Little Grandsire," the, 164 



MAR 

Livonia falls into the hands of Russia, 
171 

Loire valley, the, 50 

London, population of, 197 ; disturbed 
life in, 198 ; divided into the City 
and Westminster, 199; the Ex- 
change and commerce, 199; arch- 
itecture, 200 

Louvain taken, 80 

Low Church, origin of, 122 

Lutzingen taken, 66 

Luxuries, far-brought supply of, in 
the eighteenth century, 211 



MACAULAY, extract from, 19 
Madrid, relinquished by the 
allies, 88 

Mahon, Port, taken, in 

Maintenon, Madame de, 22, 103 

Majorca declares for allies, 94 

Malplaquet, battle of, preparations, 
104 ; description of ground, 108 ; 
the battle, 108 ; and result, 109 

" Man, Essay on," 227 

Manufactures, growth of, 196, 209 

Margrave of Bayreutb, 94 

Maria Theresa, wife of Lewis XIV., 
renounces right to the throne of 
Spain, 2 

Maria Theresa, daughter of the Em- 
peror Charle- VI., 195 

Marlborough, Earl of, afterwards 
Duke, (John Churchill) as Gover- 
nor to the Duke of Gloucester, 26 ; 
early life, 27 ; dismissed from all 
his employments, 28 ; aids James, 
28 ; restored to favour, 28 ; his char- 
acter and virtues, 29 ; appointed 
Commander-in-Chief, 41 ; in Flan- 
ders, 41-44: his object and first 
campaign, 42 ; result of campaign, 
43 ; in danger, 43 ; results of second 
campaign, 44 ; made Duke, 43 ; 
his plans and meeting with Prince 
Eugene, 59 ; his victory at Schel- 
lenberg, 60 ; preparations for the 
battle of Blenheim, 61 ; report of 
his victory at Blenheim, 66 ; his de- 
signs upon Italy, 77; his campaign 
of 1706, 77; narrow escape of Deing 
taken prisoner, 79 ; his plans, 79 ; 
his victory at Ramillies, 80; takes 
Brussels ani Antwerp, 80; pro- 
posed as Governor of Netherlands, 
82 ; his campaign of 1707, 89 ; visits 
the King of Sweden, 90; in 



248 



Index. 



NET 

Flanders, 91 ; his campaign of 1708, 
95 ; defeats the French at Oudo- 
narde, 97 ; preparations for the cam- 
paign of 1710, 104; defeats the 
French at Malplaquet, 108 ; ascen 
dency of, 112 ; change in his poli- 
tical views, 123 ; loses favour with 
Anne, 128 ; request to be made 
Commander-in-Chief for life re- 
fused, 129 ; hii last campaign, 134 ; 
disgrace of, 135 ; libels against him, 
135 ; returns to England and is 
again appointed Commander-in 
Chief of the army, 192; his death, 

*93 
Marlborough, Lady, the favourite of 
Anne, 27; her influence over Anne, 
27; allied to the Junto, 126.; dis- 
missed from Court, 131 ; her death, 

193 

Marsin, Marshal, in Bavaria, 59; 
routed at Blenheim, 64 ; commands 
at siege of Turin, 83 ; defeated at 
Turin, 84 

Masham, Mrs. (Abigail Hill), her in- 
fluence over Anne, 127 

Maurice, Prince, 179 

Maximilian, Elector of Bavaria, at 
the battle of Blenheim, 63 

Mayence, Archbishop of, 34 

Mazarin, on Lewis XIV., 14 

Mazeppa, 169 

Menin, siege of, 81 

Methuen Treaty, the, 40 ; hard drink- 
ing traced to it, 213 

Milan, convention of, 85 : ceded to 
Austria, 141 

Minorca, taken by the English, no 

Mohawks, the, 199 

Moliere, 224 

Mona>teries, suppression of, 205 

Money, value of, in this reign, 206 

Monjuich, capture of, 72 

Mons, besieged, 107 ; taken, 109 

Mordaunt, Charles, Earl of Peter- 
borough ( see Peterborough, Earl of,) 

NANTES, Edict of, revoked, zt 
Naples, makes peace apart 

from Spain, 85 ; secured by the 

Emperor, 93 ; ceded to Austria, 141 
Narva, battle of, 167 
Nash, Richard, 203 
National Debt, the general principle 

of, 213 ; later history of, 214 
Nebel, passage of the, 64 
Netherlands, the war in, 77; ceded to 

Austria, 141 



PET 

Newfoundland, ceded tc England* 
141 

Noguera river, 113 

Nonh-Eastern State System, com- 
prising Denmark, Poland, Sweden 
and Russia, 154-158 

Nova Scotia, ceded to England, 141 

Nules taken, 75 

Nymwegen, treaty of, 20 



OBERGLAU, village of, 65 
Occasional Conformity Bill, 
description of, 123 ; defeated in the 
House of Lords, 124 ; passed, 131 

Orange, Prince of, takes part in the 
battle of Malplaquet, 108 

Orleans, Duke of, commands at 
Turin, 83 ; succeeds to the com- 
mand of the French forces, in ; 
becomes regent on the death of 
Lewis XIV., 191 ; his policy, 192 

Ormond, Duke of, 46 ; appointed 
Commander-in-Chief, 136 

Ostend, siege of, 81 

Ottomond, tomb of, 79 

Oudenarde, battle of, 96 ; battle be- 
gins, 97 ; sequel of battle, 99 

Overkirk, Marshal, 98 

Oxford, Earl of, impeached, 182 



PALATINATE, ravaging of the, 
23 ; Elector of, 34 
Pamphlets, 230 

Parties, strength of, 216 ; at the Uni- 
versities, 217 ; patronage by, 229 
Partition, first treaty of, 6'; second 
treaty of, 6; results of these trea- 
ties in Spam, 7 
Pascal, 222 
Paterson, William, his expedition to 

Darien, 7, 8 
Patriarchate abolished in Russia, 162 
Patronage of French literature, 218; 
of English literature, 224; by par- 
ties, 229 
Pauperism in Anne's reign, 206 
Peace, negotiations for, 138 
Peerage, Irish and Scotch, 148 
Pepys, Mr., his first cup of tea, 210 
Peter the Great, his early life and 
real accession to power, 158; his 

Eohcy, 159; his appearance, 159; 
is desire for a navy, 160; visit* 
Holland and England, 160 ; changes 
the capital and calendar of Russia. 



Index. 



249 



161 



PRO 

abolishes patriarchate, 162 



adopts European fashions, 162; in- 
stitutes the Tchin, 163 ; defeated by 
Charles XII. at Narva, 167 ; his 
victory over Charles XII. at Pul- 
towa, 170; at war with Turkey, 
171 ; his second journey to Europe, 
174- death of his son, 174; his 
death, 174 

Peterborough, Earl, of (Mordaunt), 
his early life, 67 ; sent to command 
in Spain, 68 ; his character, 68 ; 
progress of his expedition, 70; his 
proposals regarding Valencia, 70; 
before Barcelona, 71 ; takes Mon- 
juich, 72 ; takes Barcelona, 73 ; 
subdues Catalonia and Valencia, 
74 ; his energy, 71 ; his success at 
San Mateo, 74 ; his winter cam- 
paign, 75 ; relieves Barcelona, 75 ; 
raises the siege, 85, 86; junction 
with Galway at Guadalaxara, 88; 
quits the army, 88 

Philip II. of Spain, 1 

Philip, Duke of Amou, Philip V. of 
Spain, claimant to the throne of 
Spain, 4 ; proclaimed King of 
Spain, 9 ; besieges Barcelona, 85 ; 
Spanish loyalty to, 84 ; heads the 
army at Villa Viciosa, 118 ; re- 
nounces claim to the French crown, 
140 ; his abdication, 194 

Piedmont, evacuated by the French, 
85 

Poland, her territories, 156 

Police service, inefficiency of, in the 
eighteenth century, 198 

Politics, alliance of, with literature, 
228-229 

Pomerania claimed by Prussia, 171 

Poor law, the, 206 

Pope, his life and most famous works, 
225 ; compared with Horace, 227 ; 
his influence, 228 ; his style, 228 ; 
compared with Dryden, 228 ; his 
lines on Addison, 237 
\ Population during this reign, 195 

Port, a favourite drink in England, 
213 

Port ousts claret, 212 

Portugal, joins the Grand Alliance, 
39 ; subject to Spam, 39 ; accedes 
to the Grand Alliance, 46 

Pragmatic Sanction, the, 195 

Pretender, the (see James) 

Prose, French development of, 222 

Protestant Succession, measures to 
secure to it, 175: secured, i35 



SAV 
" Provincial Letters," the, 223 
Prussia constituted a kingdom, 35 ; 

recognised by France, 141 
Pruth, the affair of the, 172 
Pultowa, battle of, 170 ; results, 171 



Q 



UEBEC, expedition against, 134 
Queen Anne's Bounty, 218 



RACINE, 22 
Ramillies, battle of, the armies 
and ground, 77 ; the battle, 79 ; 
result, 80 

" Rape of the Lock," the, 227 

Rastadt, peace of, 139 

Religious distinction between Whigs 
and Tories, 121 

Representation of Scotland in par- 
liament, 148 

Repudiation, 215 

Revolution of 1688, party views of 
the, 121 

Rhone valley, the, 50 

Rights, Bill of, 25 

" Robinson Crusoe," 234 

Rooke, Sir George, 47; captures 
Gibraltar, 49 

Rousseau, Jeaa Jacques, 224 

Rupert, Prince, 179 

Russia, her territories, 155, 157; 
foundation of St. Petersburg, 161 ; 
patriarchate abolished, 162 ; Euro- 
pean fashions adopted, 162 ; war 
with Turkey, 171 

Ryswick, peace of, 5 



SACHEVERELL, Dr. his sermon 
and parliamentary proceedings 

against him, 130 
St. George, Chevalier, 99 
St. John, Henry, as Secretary at 

War, 128; his character, 132; 

created Lord Bolingbroke, 133 ; his 

schemes, 183 
St. Paul's, rebuilt by Sir C Wren, 

201 ; cost, 202 
S+. Petersburg, foundation of, 161 
Saint Simon, Due de, memoirs of, 222 
St. Stephen's, Walbrook, 201 
San Mateo, siege of, 74 
Saragossa, battle of, 114 
Sardinia taken, 110 
Savoy, joins the Grand Alliance, 37; 

secured to the cause of the Grand 

Alliance, 85 



250 



Index. 



STA 

Savoy, Duke of, (see Victor Amadeus) 

Saxony, Elector of, 34 

Scania, claimed by Denmark, 171 

Schellenberg, storming of, 60 

Schlusselburg taken, 169 

Scilly Isles, shipwreck off, 95 

Scotland, ill-will of, against William 
III., 8; union with England (see 
Union with Scotland) 

Security, Act of, 145 

Serf, a, 204 

Settlement, Act of, 26, 145 

Sevigne, Madame de, her letters, 222 

" Shortest way with Dissenters," 234 

Shovel, Sir Cloudcsley, is ship- 
wrecked off the Scilly Isles, 95 

Shrewsbury, Earl of (see Talbot) 

Social condition of the people of 
England, 195 

Somers, Lord, the leader and guide 
of the Whig party, 125; as presi- 
dent of the Council, 128 

Sophia, princess, sister of Peter the 
Great, 158 

Sophia, electress, hfr descendants, 
177; her wife, 179; named suc- 
cessor to Anne, 180 

Sophia Dorothea, of Zell, wife of 
George I., 186 

Spain, monarchy of, 1 ; claimants to 
the throne on the death of Charles 
II., 2 ; anxieties regarding the 
crown, 4 ; and an<rer against Wil- 
liam, 7 ; English expedition against, 
46 ; invasion of, 49 ; Peterborough's 
campaign in, 70-76 ; later campaign 
in, 109 ; French troops withdrawn 
from, 112 ; defeated at the battle of 
Almenara, 113; defeated at Sara- 

?;ossa, 114; end of war, 119; her 
osses by the war, 141 

Spanish galleons destroyed at Vigo, 48 

Spanish monarchy in the hands of 
Philip V., 140 

Spanish succession, the, 1-13; open- 
ing of the war, 41-56; the point of 
greatest success in the war, 86 ; 
general considerations on, 143 

" Spectator," the, 240 : its influence, 
240 

Stanhope, General, 88, no; com- 
mands the British troops, no ; takes 
Minorca and Port Mahon, in ; ad- 
vances and passes the river No- 
guera, 113 ; his victory at Almenara, 
113; and Saragossa, 114; enters 
Madrid, 115; winters at Toledo, 
116; defeated at Brihuega, 117 



TOR 

Staremberg, no; colleague of Stan- 
hope, 113 ; his victory at Saragossa, 
114 ; gives battle at Villa Viciosa, 
119 

Steele, Richard, his charactei, 239, 
240; his works, 239-240 

Stradella, pass of, 83 

Stralsund, siege of, 173 

Strassburg, seizure of, 21 

Strelitzes, the, 163 

Sunderjand, Earl of, as Secretary of 
State, 126 

Sweden, formation of league with 
England and Holland, i3 ; her ter- 
ritory on the shores of the Baltic, 
156; her power, 156; defeated at 
Pultowa, 170 

Swift, Dean, on Lord Peterborough, 
69; in favour of repudiation, 213; 
his life and works, 230-233; his 
death, 232 



T ACKERS, the, 124 
Talbot, Charles, Earl of Shrews- 
bury, his previous career, 184 ; as 
Secretary of State, 184 ; retires 
from office, 184 ; appointed Lord 
High Treasurer, 185 

"Tale of a Tub," 231 

Tallard, General, 6; joins Marsin, 
61 ; his position at the battle of 
Blenheim, 63 ; taken prisoner, 65 

" Tatler," the, 239 

Tavieres taken, 79 

Tchin, the, institution of, 163 

Tea regarded as a luxury, 210 

Te Deum in St. Paul's Cathedral, 
144 

Temple, Sir William, 17 

Test act, the, 123 

Theology, French, 222 

Tobacco, great consumption of, 212 

Toledo, winter quarters of the allies, 
116 

Toleration, Edict of, 50 

Torcy, M. de, at the Hague, 102; 
anecdote of, 138 

Tories their principles, 120; their 
views of the Revolution of 1688, 
121 ; their religious views dis- 
tinguished from the Whigs, 122 ; 
majority at general election of 1710, 
131 ; election of twelve peers, 136 ; 
the Jacobites, connection with, 180 ; 
the ministry at the end of Anne's 
reign, 181 ; strength of, 216 



Index. 



2 5i 



VIC 

Toulon besieged, 94 

Toulouse, Count of, 85; besieges 
Barcelona, 85 

Tournai taken, 106 

Towns, important, 197 

Townshend, Lord, 102 

Treasure ships, destruction of, at 
Vigo, 47 

Treves, Archbishop of, 34 

Triple alliance, the, 17 

" True-born Englishman, the, 233 

Turin, siege of, 82 ; state of the siege, 
83 ; battle of, 84 ; result of the bat- 
tle, 85 

Turkey, war with Russia, 171 



UNIGENITUS Bull, the, 222 
Union Jack, the, 149 

Union with Scotland, earlier attempts 
at union, 144 ; commissioners ap- 
pointed, 146 ; arrangements pro- 
posed, 146; opposition in Scotland, 
147 ; results, 150 : compared with 
the union with Ireland, 150 

Unterglau, 62 

Utrecht, peace of, 138-144 ; congress 
at, 139; peace signed, 139; argu- 
ments for, 142 ; arguments against, 
143 

VAGRANTS, statute of, 205 
Valencia, subdued, 74; recov- 
ered by the French, 92 

Vanbrugh, Sir John, 203 

Vendome, Duke of, 81 ; defeats the 
Imperialists at Calcinato, 82 ; com- 
mands in Flanders, 96 ; defeated 
at Oudenarde, 99 ; sent to com- 
mand in Spain, 117; defeats the 
English at Brihuega, 117 

Venloo, capitulation of, 42 

Victor Amadeus II., Duke of Savoy, 
his character, 37 ; his part in the 
war before Ryswick, 37; in the 
Spanish succession, 38 ; bis corres- 
pondence with Lewis XIV., 38; 
opposes him, 39 ; joins Prince Eu- 
gene, 84; made King of Sicily, 
193 ; his abdication and death, 194 



WYN 

Vigo Bay, battle in, 48 

Villadarias, Marquis of, 47 ; com- 
mander of Spanish army, 113 

Villars, marshal, commands in the 
Cevennes, 56 ; defeats the allies- on 
the Rhine, 94; commands in Flan- 
ders, 105 ; wounded at Malplaquet, 
108 ; defeats Prince Eugene at 
Denain, 137 

Villa Viciosa, battle of, 118 

Villeroy, marshal, commands in Flan- 
ders, 77 ; defeated at Ramillies, 80 

Voltaire, 224 



WALPOLE, Sir Robert, as prime 
minister, 186 

War of the Blouses, 52 

Webb, General, his victory at Wyn« 
endale, 100 

West Indies, war in, 46 

Westphalia, peace of, 14 

Wheat, fluctuations in tho price of, 
207 

Whigs, their principles, 120; their 
views of the Revolution of 1688, 
121 ; their religious views distin- 
guished from the Tories, 121-122; 
strength of, 217 

William III., prince of Orange, 36; 
his quarrels with Lewis XIV., 5 ; 
his negotiations with Lewis XIV., 
6; opposition in England, Scotland 
to, 8 ; his death and character, 11 ; 
as a European statesman, 12 ; at 
war with Lewis XIV., 18; expe- 
dition against Cadiz, 46 ; his influ- 
ence on foreign policy 121 

William, Duke of Gloucester, 26 

Wine, great change in the taste for, 
212 

Witt, De, massacred, 18 

Wool, exportation of, 208 

Wren, Sir Christopher, his plan for 
the city of London, 198 ; his char- 
acter, 201 ; rs- builds St. Paul's, 201; 
his style of architecture, 202 

Wynendale, skirmish at, 100 



Manual of Mythology 

FOR THE USE OF 

SCHOOLS, ART STUDENTS AND GENERAL READERS, 

FOUNDED ON THE WORKS OF PETISCUS, PRELLEH. 
AND WELCKER. 

By ALEXANDER S. MURRAY, 

Department of Greek and Roman Antiquities, British Museum. 

With 45 Plates on tinted paper, representing- more than 90 
Mythological Subjects. 



REPRINTED FROM THE SECOND REVISED LONDON EDITION. 



One volume, crown 8vo, $2.25. 



There has long been needed a compact, manageable Manual of 
Mythology, which should be a guide to the Art student and the general 
reader, and at the same time answer the purposes of a school text-book. 
This volume which has been prepared by the Director of the Department 
of Greek and Roman Antiquities in the British Museum, upon the basis 
of the works of Petiscus, Preller, and Welcker, has had so extensive a 
sale in the English edition, as to prove that it precisely supplies this want. 
This American edition has been reprinted from the latest English edition, 
and contains all the illustrations of the latter, while the chapter upon 
Eastern Mythology has been carefully revised by Prof. IV. D. Whitney 
of Yale College. 

N. B. — Teachers wishing to examine this work with a view 
to introducing it as a text-book, will have it sent to them, by 
.forwarding their address and $1.35. 



"»* The above book for sale by all booksellers, or will be sent, post or express 
c/utrgee pttidy upon re.eipt 0/ the price by the publishers, 

CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS, 

743 and 745 Broadway, New York, 






EPOCHS OF HISTORY, 



**A Series of concise and carefully prepared volumes on special 
eras of history. Each is devoted to a group of events of such 
importance as to entitle it to be regarded as an epoch. Each 
is also complete in itself, and has no especial connection with 
the other members of the series. The works are all written 
by authors selected by the editor on account of some especial 
qualifications for a portrayal of the period they respectively 
describe. The volumes form an excellent collection, especially 
adapted to the wants of a general reader." — CHARLES KENDALL 
ADAMS, President of Cornell University. 

•'The • Epochs of History ' seem to me to have been prepared with 
knowledge and artistic skill to meet the wants of a large number 
of readers. To the young they furnish an outline or compen- 
dium which may serve as an introduction to more extended 
study. To those who are older they present a convenient sketch 
of the heads of the knowledge which they have already acquired. 
The outlines are by no means destitute of spirit, and may be 
used with great profit for family reading, and in select classes 
or reading clubs."— NOAH PORTER, President of Yale College. 

" It appears to me that the idea of Morris in his Epochs is strictly 
in harmony with the philosophy of history— namely, that 
great movements should be treated not according to narrow 
geographical and national limits and distinction, but uni- 
versally, according to their place in the general life of the 
world. The historical Maps and the copious Indices are 
welcome additions to the volumes."— Bishop JOHN F. HURST, 
Ejc -President of Drew Theological Seminary. 

"The volumes contain the ripe results of the studies of men who 
are authorities in their respective fields."— The Nation. 

"To be appreciated they must be read in their entirety; and we 
do no more than simple justice in commending them earnestly 
to the favor of the studious public." — The New York World. 

The great success of the series is the best proof of its general 
popularity, and the excellence of the various volumes is further 
attested by their having been adopted as text-books in many of 
our leading educational institutions, including Harvard, Cornell, 
Weslayan, Vermont, and Syracuse Universities; Yale, Princeton, 
Amherst, Dartmouth, Williams, Union, and Smith Colleges; and 
many other colleges, academies, normal and high schools. 



EPOCHS OF MODERN HISTORY. 

A SERIES OF BOOKS NARRATING THE HISTORY OF 

ENGLAND AND EUROPE AT SUCCESSIVE EPOCHS 

SUBSEQUENT TO THE CHRISTIAN ERA. 

Edited by 

Edward E. Morris. 

Seventeen volumes, i6mo, with 74 Maps, Plans and Tables. 

Sold separately. Price per vol., $1.00. 

The Set, Roxburgh style, gilt top, in box, $17.00. 

THE BEGINNING OF THE MIDDLE AGES— England and Europe 
in the Ninth Century. By the Very Rev. R. W. Church, M. A. 

THE NORMANS IN EUROPE— The Feudal System and England 
under Norman Kings. By the Rev. A. H. Johnson, M.A. 

THE CRUASDES. By the Rev. G. W. Cox, M.A. 

THE EARLY PLANTAGENETS— Their Relation to the History 
of Europe : The Foundation and Growth of Constitutional 
Government. By the Rev. Wm. Stubbs, M.A. 

EDWARD III. By the Rev. W. Warburton, M.A. 

THE HOUSES OF LANCASTER AND YORK— The Conquest and 
Loss of France. By James Gairdner. 

THE ERA OF THE PROTESTANT REVOLUTION. By Frederic 
Seebohm. With Notes on Books in English relating to the 
Reformation. By Prof. George P. Fisher, D.D. 

THE EARLY TUDORS. Henry VII. ; Henry VIII. By Rev. C. E. 

MOBERLY, M.A. 

THE AGE OF ELIZABETH. By the Rev. M. Creighton, M.A. 
THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR, 1618-1648. By Samuel Rawson 

Gardiner. 
THE PURITAN REVOLUTION; and the First Two Stuarts, 

1603-1660. By Samuel Rawson Gardiner. 
THE FALL OF THE STUARTS; and Western Europe. By the 

Rev. Edward Hale, M.A. 
THE AGE OF ANNE. By Edward E. Morris, M.A. 
THE EARLY HANOVERIANS— Europe from the Peace of Utrechtto 

the Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle. By Edward E. Morris, M.A. 
FREDERICK THE GREAT AND THE SEVEN YEARS' WAR. By 

F. W. Longman. 
THE FRENCH REVOLUTION AND FIRST EMPIRE. By William 

O'Connor Morris. With Appendix by Andrew D. White, 

LL.D., ex-President of Cornell University. 
THE EPOCH OF REFORM. 1830-1850. By Justin McCarthy. 



EPOCHS OF ANCIENT HISTORY. 

A SERIES OF BOOKS NARRATING THE HISTORY OF 

GREECE AND ROME, AND OF THEIR RELATIONS TO 

OTHER COUNTRIES AT SUCCESSIVE EPOCHS. 

Edited by 

Rev. G. W. Cox and Charles Sankey, M.A. 

Eleven volumes, i6mo, with 41 Maps and Plans. 

Sold separately. Price per vol., $1.00. 

The Set, Roxburgh style, gilt top, in box, $11.00. 

TROY— ITS LEGEND, HISTORY, AND LITERATURE. By 
S. G. W. Benjamin. 

THE GREEKS AND THE PERSIANS. By the Rev. G. W. Cox. 

THE ATHENIAN EMPIRE— From the Flight of Xerxes to the 
Fall of Athens. By the Rev. G. W. Cox. 

THE SPARTAN AND THEBAN SUPREMACIES. By Charlos 
Sankey, M.A. 

THE MACEDONIAN EMPIRE— Its Rise and Culmination fc. the 
Death of Alexander the Great. By A. M. Curteis, M.A. 

The Jive volumes above give a connected and complete history 
of Greece from the earliest times to the death of Alexander. 

EARLY ROME— From the Foundation of the City to its Destruc* 
tion by the Gauls. By W. Ihne, Ph.D. 

ROME AND CARTHAGE— The Punic Wars. By R. Boswortb 
Smith, M.A. 

THE GRACCHI, MARIUS, AND SULLA. By A. H. Beesly, M.A. 

THE ROMAN TRIUMVIRATES. By the Very Rev. Charles 
Merivale, D.D. 

THE EARLY EMPIRE— From the Assassination of Julius Caesar 
to the Assassination of Domitian. By the Rev. W. Wolfe 
Capes, M.A. 

THE AGE OF THE ANTON I NES— the Roman Empire of the 
Second Century. By the Rev. W. Wolfe Capes, M.A. 

The six volumes above give the History of Rome from Ou 
founding of the City to the death of Marcus A melius Antoninus. 



F 6?3' 



